Rockets Rain on Occupied Cities in Retaliation

Zionist Troops Raid Al-Aqsa; Hundreds Injured

Date: 10 May 2021 - 21:38

News ID: ۹۰۱۱۰

AL-QUDS (Dispatches) -- Hundreds of Palestinian protesters and at least 21 police officers were injured throughout Monday morning in fierce clashes on the Noble Sanctuary in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to medical officials and police.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 305 people were hurt in the confrontation, as Zionist troops burst onto the Noble Sanctuary and Al-Aqsa Mosque, firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets.
Around 205 Palestinians were hospitalized, of whom seven were in serious condition, the first aid organization reported. At least 21 Zionist military officers were injured, including one who required hospitalization, police said.
Explosions were heard in Jerusalem Al-Quds after air raid sirens sounded. The occupying regime of Israel’s military said Hamas fired seven rockets from the Gaza Strip toward Al-Quds.
One of the projectiles was intercepted, the military claimed, adding the rest seemed to have landed in open areas.
The sirens came shortly after Hamas in Gaza had set a deadline for Israel to remove its security forces from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, said the reprisal rocket attack was a response to Israeli "crimes and aggression” in Al-Quds. "This is a message the enemy has to understand well,” he said.
He threatened more reprisal attacks if the Zionist regime again invades the Al-Aqsa compound or carries out evictions of Palestinian families in a neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
Rocket sirens sounded in Israeli communities near the Gaza fence in the town of Sderot and nearby communities in the Sha’ar Hanegev region as well as in the city of Ashkelon and surrounding communities.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement, said it had launched 30 rockets at Sderot Monday.
Palestinian media reports that the Zionist regime’s warplanes had begun conducting airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli attacks came shortly after the regime on Monday morning decided to bar Zionists from entering the flashpoint holy site on Al-Quds occupation day due to spiraling tensions, drawing fury from right-wing legislators.
Zionist authorities said they also changed the route for an annual parade by extremist Zionists through Al-Quds in order to limit the chances of direct confrontations between the participants and the Muslim residents of the Old City, despite initially saying they had no plan to alter the event.
The so-called Flag March was barred from entering the Old City through the Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter. Instead the parade was instructed to enter the Jaffa Gate and proceed from there to the Western Wall.
The decision was made at the orders of the occupying regime of Israel’s political echelon, following a situational assessment with the regime’s security services.
Zionist forces entered the Noble Sanctuary in the morning after thousands of Palestinians gathered in the compound overnight. The Palestinian Red
Crescent said hundreds were injured.
Sunday night saw fierce clashes between Palestinian protesters and Zionist forces in Al-Quds. At least 25 people were wounded and 23 people arrested.
The Noble Sanctuary is considered holy by Muslims. The site contains the Al-Aqsa Mosque — the third holiest site in Islam. Zionists have been barred from entering the site in recent days amid the tensions, which coincide with the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Palestinian officials condemned Monday’s "storming of Al-Aqsa” by Zionist forces and vowed that they would consider "all options” in response.
"Storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a crime committed by the occupation. The Palestinian leadership is studying all options to respond to this heinous aggression against the holy sites and the citizens,” tweeted senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh, one of president Mahmoud Abbas’s closest advisers.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesperson for the Hamas movement, called the Zionist attack "a real massacre and war crime.
"We call on our entire nation to take to the streets and clash with the occupation,” he said, adding that "Israel will pay a heavy price for its forcible takeover of Al-Aqsa.”
The announcement barring Zionist visits to the Noble Sanctuary  on Al-Quds occupation day came shortly before the scheduled start of the visits and after hundreds of Zionists had already made their way toward the compound.
The Israeli police statement said thousands of officers had been deployed throughout Al-Quds and its Old City since early Monday morning.
East Al-Quds has seen violent nights for the past few weeks. Demonstrators have been protesting over tensions surrounding the Noble Sanctuary as well as the pending eviction of Palestinians from East Al-Quds’ Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
The protests in Sheikh Jarrah have devolved into clashes with Zionist forces, with Israeli forces using high-pressure water cannons, rubber-tipped bullets, and stun grenades to disperse the demonstrators. Matters came to a head on Friday night when Israeli forces attacked Palestinians on the Noble Sanctuary, with dozens of people wounded.
Al-Quds day celebrates the Zionist regime’s occupation of East Al-Quds and the Old City in the 1967 war. The march is widely perceived as provocative, as Zionist extremists, guarded by police, walk through the Damascus Gate of the Old City and through the Muslim Quarter to the Western Wall.
This year the march coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a time of heightened religious sensitivities, and follows weeks of clashes.