Hamas fires rockets at Israel amid al-Aqsa mosque clashes

JERUSALEM: Hamas militants on Monday (May 10) fired rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip after warning the Jewish state to pull out its security forces from the violence-torn Al-Aqsa mosque compound and a flashpoint Jerusalem district.

Sirens wailed across Jerusalem minutes after the 1500 GMT deadline set by Hamas as people in Jerusalem, including lawmakers in the Knesset legislature, evacuated into bunkers, amid warnings over loudspeaker in Hebrew and English.

The Israeli army said seven rockets were fired from the coastal strip into Israel, one of which was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defence system.

One of them impacted at Beit Shemesh south of Jerusalem, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israel Defence Forces said on Twitter that, separate to the rockets, "as a result of an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza, an Israeli civilian in a nearby vehicle was lightly injured" in the Gaza border area.

A spokesman for Hamas's armed wing the Qassam Brigades said that at 1500 GMT "a volley of rockets was fired towards the enemy in occupied Jerusalem in response to its crimes and aggression on the holy city and repression of its residents in Sheikh Jarrah and the Al-Aqsa mosque".

"This is a message that the enemy must understand well: if you respond we will respond, and if you escalate we will escalate."

Tensions have sharply escalated since Israeli riot police clashed with Palestinian worshippers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in the city's worst disturbances since 2017.

Nightly unrest since then has left hundreds of Palestinians wounded, drawn calls for de-escalation from the international community and sharp rebukes from across the Muslim world.

SIRENS, EVACUATION

Fears of further chaos in the Old City had temporarily eased somewhat when Israeli organisers of a march to celebrate the Jewish state's 1967 capture of east Jerusalem cancelled the event.

But then came the Hamas warning, followed shortly after by the rockets.

"An alarm has just been sounded in Jerusalem. Police forces have begun evacuating hundreds of people" gathered at the Wailing Wall to safer locations, police said in a brief statement, later adding that the evacuation was completed.

READ: Pope Francis urges end to clashes in Jerusalem

Hamas has fired several rockets towards Israel in recent days, some intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, while militants in Gaza have deployed incendiary balloons that have sparked dozens of fires in Israeli territory.

Israel's army earlier announced widespread road closures in communities near the Gaza border, following a "situational assessment", and two municipalities near Gaza, Ashkelon and Kyriat Malachi, confirmed that they had opened their bomb shelters.

'IT'S A SHAME'

In Monday's clashes, as during the previous nights since Friday, Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli officers in riot gear who fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

Loud booms and angry screams echoed from the ancient stone walls of the compound, where Palestinians built makeshift barricades and the ground was littered with rocks, stun grenade fragments and other debris.

Outside the mosque - where some ornamental windows had been smashed - an installation made from empty shells of stun grenades and tear gas canisters depicted the Dome of the Rock with the Arabic slogan "You Shall Not Pass".

Israeli police restricted access to Al-Aqsa to Palestinians aged over 40, checking identification of anyone who wanted to access the plaza.

"We do not know what to do," Palestinian pensioner Fathi Awwad told AFP in the Old City. "We are really sad about the situation inside, what is this? More than 200 injured inside! It's a shame."

The violence since Friday has been fuelled by a long-running bid by Jewish settlers to evict several Palestinian families from their nearby east Jerusalem Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

A Supreme Court hearing on a Palestinian appeal in the case originally set for Monday was pushed back by the justice ministry due to the tensions.

Despite mounting international condemnation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for the Israeli police's "just struggle", praising the "steadfastness that the Israeli police and our security forces are currently displaying".

'ESCALATING AGGRESSION'

The UN Security Council met for an informal meeting at Tunisia's request later on Monday on the unrest that has escalated since the last Friday prayers of Ramadan.

READ: Erdogan denounces 'terrorist' Israel over Jerusalem clashes

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation said it would Tuesday hold an emergency meeting "to discuss the escalating Israeli aggression", including the evictions issue and "attacks against worshippers in the Mosque compound and denial of the compound access to them".

The Palestinian Red Crescent put the toll from Monday's clashes at 305 injured, including more than 200 who were hospitalised, five of them in critical condition.

The Israeli police reported nine injuries in their ranks.

Three Palestinians lost one eye each, said surgeon Firas Abu Akari at east Jerusalem's Makassed hospital.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan "encouraged the Israeli government to pursue appropriate measures to ensure calm during Jerusalem Day commemorations".

All six Arab nations that have diplomatic ties with Israel - Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan - have rebuked the Jewish state, as have other mostly Muslim countries including Turkey and Indonesia.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas issued a fresh condemnation of what he called Israel's "barbaric aggression."