Israel's new government orders to attack Gaza for the first time since ceasefire

Israeli aviation attacked Hamas positions in Gaza early Wednesday for the first time since the ceasefire that ended an 11-day military escalation on May 21. The bombing, which caused material damage to Palestinian militia bases in the capital of the enclave and in Khan Younis (south), took place in retaliation for the launch of a score of incendiary balloons from the Strip that burned fields of crops in neighboring areas From Israel. This is the first armed action ordered by the new Israeli government, which took office on Sunday after ousting the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been prime minister for 12 years, from power.

The Armed Forces warned in a statement that "Israel is prepared for any scenario, including the resumption of hostilities." More than 240 Palestinians, including 67 minors, and 13 residents of Israel, including a military man, lost their lives in last month's escalation. A Hamas spokesman announced that "the Islamic resistance would continue to defend Palestinian rights and their holy sites (in Jerusalem)."

East Jerusalem on Tuesday had relived scenes of tension like those that preceded the largest outbreak of hostilities in the past seven years between Israel and Gaza militias a month ago. About 5,000 Jewish extremists marched outside the Old City's walled compound chanting nationalist demands, in a parade interpreted as a challenge to the broad-coalition Israeli government formed on Sunday. The deployment of more than 2,000 police officers prevented clashes with hundreds of Palestinian counter-protesters. The agents watched that the march followed the planned route, deviating from its traditional route through an area with a majority Palestinian population.

Thousands of young people, the vast majority of them ultra-rightist and religious settlers, leapt syncopately under a sea of ​​Israeli flags in front of the emblematic Damascus Gate, although without crossing, as in previous editions of the parade, the main access to the Muslim quarter of the historic center. They participated in the Jewish nationalist procession for Jerusalem Day, commemorating the conquest of the eastern part of the city by Israeli troops in 1967. The official celebration was suspended on May 10 due to the launch of rockets from Gaza against the province of Gaza. Jerusalem, an action that unleashed 11 days of hostilities between the Israeli Army and the armed arms of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

The latest outbreak of violence in Gaza represents the first military challenge faced by the new Israeli government led by the ultra-nationalist Naftali Bennett, who had already had to face the march of the extreme right and radical Jewish groups in Jerusalem hours before. that cries of “death to the Arabs!” were launched.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, a key partner in the new government, condemned "the use of the Israeli flag by extremist elements amid hatred and racism."

"That is not typical of Jews or Israelis, that is not what the flag symbolizes," he claimed through Twitter.

"Those people (the protesters) are a disgrace to Israel."

The march of the flags through the Old City of Jerusalem had initially been rescheduled for last Thursday, but the still head of Government Netanyahu decided to postpone it, in a political maneuver apparently designed to torpedo the first days of Bennett's administration and his heterogeneous coalition. in which a pacifist party and a formation of the Israeli Arab minority participate.

An ultra-Orthodox participant in the nationalist march in Jerusalem on Tuesday, DPA via Europa Press / Europa Press

By early afternoon on Tuesday, security forces had loaded up with riot control units on horseback to clear the area around the Damascus Gate of Palestinian protesters, 17 of whom were detained and 30 others injured. These protested against the presence of Jewish radicals in East Jerusalem. The Israeli nationalist march continued its course outside the walls towards the Jewish quarter, barely bordering the Muslim quarter, until it concluded in a large concentration in front of the Western Wall esplanade.

The United Nations envoy for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, warned that "tension is rising again in Jerusalem at a very politically sensitive time." The constitution of a new government in Israel has occurred while the UN and Egypt are still trying to consolidate the ceasefire that entered into force on May 21 in Gaza. Wennesland called on both sides to avoid actions that could be seen as "provocations."

During the last month of Ramadan (between April and May) there were clashes in Jerusalem between policemen and Palestinian protesters in the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holy place of Islam and located in the Old City, and in the nearby district of Sheikh Yarrah, faced with the threat of expulsion of dozens of Palestinian families by a settler organization. Israel regards Jerusalem as its unique and indivisible capital, while the Palestinians aspire to turn the eastern part of the Holy City into the capital of their future state.