Israeli police escort Jewish guests marking the vacation of Passover to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, recognized to Muslims because the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews because the Temple Mount, within the Old City of Jerusalem in the course of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Sunday, April 9, 2023.

Mahmoud Illean/AP

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Mahmoud Illean/AP

Israeli police escort Jewish guests marking the vacation of Passover to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, recognized to Muslims because the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews because the Temple Mount, within the Old City of Jerusalem in the course of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Sunday, April 9, 2023.

Mahmoud Illean/AP

JERUSALEM — The Israeli navy mentioned its forces attacked targets in Syria early Sunday after six rockets had been launched from Syrian territory in two batches towards Israel in a uncommon assault from Israel’s northeastern neighbor.

After the second barrage of three rockets, Israel initially mentioned it responded with artillery hearth into the world in Syria from the place the rockets had been fired. Later, the navy mentioned Israeli fighter jets attacked Syrian military websites, together with a compound of Syria’s 4th Division and radar and artillery posts.

The rocket firings got here after days of escalating violence on a number of fronts over pressure in Jerusalem and an Israeli police raid on the town’s most delicate holy web site.

In the second barrage, which was launched early Sunday, two of the rockets crossed the border into Israel, with one being intercepted and the second touchdown in an open space, the Israeli navy mentioned. In the primary assault, on Saturday, one rocket landed in a discipline within the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Fragments of one other destroyed missile fell into Jordanian territory close to the Syrian border, Jordan’s navy reported.

There had been no stories of casualties.

A Damascus-based Palestinian group loyal to the Syrian regime claimed duty for launching the three missiles Saturday, reported Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV.

The report quoted Al-Quds Brigade, a militia totally different than the bigger Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing with the same identify, as saying it fired the rockets to retaliate for the police raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In Syria, an adviser to President Bashar Assad described the rocket strikes as “part of the previous, present and continuing response to the brutal enemy.”

Israel, which has vowed to cease Iranian entrenchment in Syria, has carried out a whole lot of strikes in government-controlled components of that nation lately, although it not often acknowledges them. Before the newest strikes, Syrian officers had attributed 10 assaults to Israel this 12 months, a few of which put the Damascus and Aleppo airports quickly out of service and killed civilians in addition to Syrian troopers and Iranian navy advisers.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli safety forces fatally shot a 20-year-old Palestinian within the city of Azzun, Palestinian well being officers mentioned, stirring protests within the space. The Israeli navy mentioned troops fired at Palestinians hurling stones and explosive gadgets. The Palestinian Health Ministry recognized the Palestinian killed as Ayed Salim.

His loss of life got here at a time of unusually heightened violence within the West Bank. Over 90 Palestinians and have been killed by Israeli hearth thus far this 12 months, a minimum of half of them affiliated with militant teams, based on a tally by The Associated Press.

Palestinian assaults on Israelis have killed 19 folks in that point — together with on Friday two British-Israelis shot to loss of life close to a settlement within the Jordan Valley and an Italian vacationer killed by a suspected car-ramming in Tel Aviv. All however one had been civilians.

The rocket hearth from Syria comes towards the backdrop of soaring Israeli-Palestinian tensions touched off by an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s most sensitive site, the sacred compound residence to the Al-Aqsa mosque. That outraged Palestinians marking the holy fasting month of Ramadan and prompted militants in Lebanon — in addition to Palestinian militants within the Gaza Strip — to fireside a heavy barrage of rockets into Israel.

In retaliation, Israeli warplanes struck websites allegedly linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Late Saturday, tensions ran excessive in Jerusalem as a couple of hundred Palestinian worshipers barricaded themselves within the mosque, which sits on a hilltop within the coronary heart of Jerusalem’s Old City sacred to each Muslims and Jews. Israeli police efforts to evict the worshipers locked within the mosque in a single day with stockpiled firecrackers and stones spiraled into unrest within the holy web site earlier this week.

The newest escalations prompted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to increase a closure barring entrance to Israel for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip at some stage in the Jewish vacation of Passover, whereas police beefed up forces in Jerusalem on the eve of delicate spiritual celebrations.

In a separate incident within the northern West Bank metropolis of Nablus late Saturday, a frontrunner of a neighborhood impartial armed group generally known as the Lion’s Den claimed the group executed an alleged Israeli collaborator who had tipped off the Israeli navy to the places and actions of the group’s members. Israeli safety forces have focused and killed a number of of the group’s key members in current months.

The accused man’s killing couldn’t be instantly confirmed, however movies in Palestinian media confirmed medics and residents gathered round his bloodied physique within the Old City, the place the Lion’s Den holds sway. “Traitors have neither a country nor a people,” Lion’s Den commander Oday Azizi mentioned in a press release.

The strikes come at a time of heightened spiritual fervor – with Ramadan coinciding with Passover and Easter celebrations. Jerusalem’s Old City, residence to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy websites, has been teeming with guests and non secular pilgrims from world wide.

Gallant mentioned {that a} closure imposed final Wednesday, on the eve of Passover, would stay in impact till the vacation ends on Wednesday evening. The order prevents Palestinians from coming into Israel for work or to hope in Jerusalem this week, although mass prayers had been permitted on the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday. Gallant additionally ordered the Israeli navy to be ready to help Israeli police. The military later introduced that it was deploying further troops round Jerusalem and within the West Bank.

Over 2,000 police had been anticipated to be deployed in Jerusalem on Sunday – when tens of 1000’s of Jews are anticipated to assemble on the Western Wall for the particular Passover priestly blessing. The Western Wall is the holiest web site the place Jews can pray and sits subsequent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the place massive crowds collect every day for prayers throughout Ramadan.

Jerusalem police chief Doron Turgeman met together with his commanders on Saturday for a safety evaluation. He accused the Hamas militant group, which guidelines the Gaza Strip, of making an attempt to incite violence forward of Sunday’s priestly blessing with false claims that Jews deliberate to storm the mosque.

“We will allow the freedom of worship and we will allow the arrival of Muslims to pray,” he mentioned, including that police “will act with determination and sensitivity” to make sure that all faiths can rejoice safely.

The present spherical of violence erupted earlier within the week after Israeli police raided the mosque, firing tear fuel and stun grenades to disperse a whole lot of Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside. Violent scenes from the raid sparked unrest within the contested capital and outrage throughout the Arab world.