Israel Update 13.5.21

NOTE BY HRG:

As I write on Thursday afternoon, large parts of Israel’s south and centre are again suffering rocket attacks.

The current conflagration arose from:

Exploitation and incitement by Hamas and the P.A. of a 50 year legal dispute over property ownership and non payment of rent in Sheikh Jarrah (see explanatory section below)
Incitement to riot by Hamas & the P.A. at the Temple Mount during Ramadan. Weapons were stockpiled inside the Al-Aqsa mosque and used to attack the Israeli police who entered the mosque to remove the weapons .(see Jerusalem Riots section below)
Unprecedented numbers of rocket barrages (over 1500) fired by Hamas and other Gazan terrorists since Monday targeting Israel’s civilian population

4. Israeli airstrikes in response targeting terrorist group commanders, their infrastructure and missile launching crews and sites.

Updates on the situation: links 1 2 3

ROCKETS FIRED BY GAZAN TERRORISTS FALL INSIDE GAZA

Large numbers of Hamas & Islamic Jihad rockets are falling short and hitting the Gazan population.

On Tuesday the IDF stated that at least 150 rockets launched by Gazan terrorists towards Israel had fallen short, many causing deaths & injuries which Hamas wrongly blamed on Israel. Read more here

Evidence that Hamas rocket killed Gazan civilians including children. Read more here

Hamas’ own videos show its own rockets falling short inside Gaza. The IDF estimates as many as 30% of rockets are falling short in Gaza. Read more here

ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK: ROCKETS FIRED BY GAZAN TERRORISTS ON ISRAELI CIVILIAN COMMUNITIES

Since the outbreak of violence on Monday night, seven people have been killed by rocket and anti-tank missile fire on the Israeli side: Ido Avigal, 5, of Sderot; Leah Yom-Tov, 63, of Rishon Lezion; Soumya Santosh, 32, a caregiver from India; Khalil Awwad, 52, and his 16-year-old daughter, Nadeen, from Dahmash, near Lod; Nela Gurvitch, 52, from Ashkelon and IDF soldier Omer Tabib, 21, from Elyakim. Read more here

What would you do if your home was under rocket fire? 39 second video:View here

Since Monday Israeli communities from Nazareth in the North to outside Eilat in the South, including the capital Jerusalem, Greater Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and Beersheba have been subjected to bombardment by heavy rocket barrages fired by Hamas and other Gazan terrorist groups by day and night. The South has borne the brunt of the attacks as well as fires in Israeli fields sparked by arson balloons from Gaza. Read more here Read more here Read more here

Iron Dome intercepted a rocket barrage over Tel Aviv & Central Israel: View here

STATEMENT FROM ISRAEL’S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS on MONDAY:

Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza fired a salvo of rockets on Monday at Jerusalem, and additional salvos on Ashkelon and Israeli communities along the border with Gaza. Hamas launched an indiscriminate attack on a civilian population – a war crime. Israel will take any action necessary to protect its citizens and will not allow the terrorist organizations to attack the civilian population of Israel without a response. It is the right and the duty of every state to protect its citizens. We call on the international community to condemn the rocket fire and Palestinian terrorism targeting Israeli citizens, and to support Israel’s right of self-defence. Read more here

ISRAEL’S RESPONSE

The IDF responded with air strikes on targets in Gaza, killing members of Hamas who were launching rockets at Israel. The IDF Spokesperson said Israel was taking steps to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties, but that Hamas deliberately operates within densely populated areas to use the residents as human shields. Dozens of Hamas operatives were eliminated on Thursday in several targeted attacks on Hamas compounds throughout the Gaza Strip. The IDF destroyed the terror group’s central bank and internal security headquarters, as well as the home of a top Hamas commander. They also eliminated dozens in an attack on a Hamas intelligence complex. Read more here Read more here

ARAB RIOTS IN ISRAEL

Israel on Wednesday experienced its worst night of internal Jewish-Arab chaos for many years, amid the ongoing armed conflict with Gaza, as scenes of unrest, rioting, hate rallies and growing social chaos spread throughout numerous cities, some of which were once seen as symbols of coexistence. Read more here

Intense Arab rioting broke out in the Jewish-Arab Israeli city of Lod late Tuesday, with three synagogues and numerous shops reportedly set on fire, along with dozens of cars. Lod resident Shiloh Fried said “Gangs of Arab youths are going street to street, burning stores, smashing windows….Jewish families are huddled at home, terrified of going out….Their cars are being set alight outside.” The government dispatched several Border Police companies to restore order. Elsewhere in Israel, attacks were reported in Ramle, Acre & Jaffa. Read more here

In a statement with unusually strong language, Israel’s President Rivlin said that “the sight of the pogrom in Lod and the disturbances across the country by an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob… is unforgivable.”…“The silence of the Arab leadership about these disturbances is shameful, giving support to terrorism and rioting and encouraging the rupture of the society in which we live and in which we will continue to live once all this has passed,” said Rivlin, who has long worked to improve Jewish-Arab ties in Israel. Read more here

JERUSALEM RIOTS AT THE TEMPLE MOUNT

On 7 May the last Friday evening of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Palestinians threw rocks and bottles at Israeli police officers on the Temple Mount following Muslim prayers. 17 police officers were hurt and half were hospitalized, with one taking a rock to the head. Video from the scene showed pitched battles, with Palestinians throwing chairs, shoes, rocks and bottles, and shooting fireworks, while chanting “Allahu Akbar,” and police responding with stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets.The Israel Police said: “We will not allow riots, violence and attempts to harm police officers through taking advantage of the freedom of worship and religion, and turning it into a violent incident.” Read more here

In the days leading up to Friday’s mass rioting at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Palestinians stockpiled stone slabs, rocks and fireworks around the site. Israeli security forces were attacked from within the Al-Aqsa mosque. Read more here

The riots continued on Monday and the police decided that Jews would not be allowed to visit the Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day. Read more here

SHEIKH JARRAH IN CONTEXT

On Feb. 10, 2021, the Jerusalem District Court upheld an October 2020 Jerusalem Magistrate Court decision requiring a number of Sheikh Jarrah residents to vacate properties they are living in. This case has been litigated for over 50 years in multiple Israeli courts. According to the Israel Supreme Court, the land in question “was owned by Chief Rabbi Avraham Ashkenazi and Chief Rabbi Meir Orbach until the War of Independence [1948], after they purchased it in 1875 from its Arab owners.”According to a 1979 High Court decision, as in the case of any tenant living on someone else’s property, residents were required to pay rent to the organizations that currently own the properties. Their failure to do so, along with instances of illegal building and illegally renting properties to others, resulted in the current legal proceedings against them. In a 1982 court case, a number of residents agreed that two Israeli non-profits were the legal land owners. Read more here

The homes under discussion today were owned by Jewish families that had purchased those homes, and had deeds registered first with the Ottoman Empire and then with the British authorities. The court determined that the people currently living in these homes had been illegally squatting for decades without paying rent or holding proof of ownership. Read more here

From CFI Newsletter: Extensive litigation over many years has established that the Palestinian residents do not hold proof of ownership, but enjoy Protected Tenant Status.

As protected tenants, a mutual arrangement was agreed in 1982 that they could continue living there as long as they paid rent and maintained the properties.

In February 2021, the Jerusalem District Court upheld an earlier court decision that after non-payment of rent and illegal construction on the property, the Palestinian residents must vacate the premises. The tenants appealed to the Supreme Court, and a hearing was set for Monday10th May.

The Supreme Court has now postponed the hearing, with a new date to be determined within the next 30 days

COMMENT & OPINION

From Honest Reporting: Over the past few weeks, Palestinians have staged near-daily riots in Jerusalem, including atop the Temple Mount, where many waved Hamas flags while chanting, “bomb, bomb Tel Aviv.” And each time Israel acceded to a demand by unruly Palestinians, their response was: more terrorism. Now, Hamas has ignited the Gaza powder keg, having launched in conjunction with other terrorist groups hundreds of projectiles at the Jewish state over the past 24 hours. As such, Israel finds itself on the brink of yet another defensive war.

How, exactly, did we get here; short video: View here

Prof. Avi Bell: The current dispute in Sheikh Jarrah involves several properties with tenants whose leases have expired, and in a few cases squatters with no tenancy rights at all, against owner-landlords who have successfully won court orders evicting the squatters and overstaying tenants. Critics claim that the Israeli government should (or even that international law requires the Israeli government to) deny the owners their property rights, but these claims are not based on any credible legal argument.Read more here

Bassem Eid: The pretext for the latest missile barrage and social media incitement is Sheikh Jarrah, where a long-running legal dispute was scheduled for a court hearing. This had been a private matter between Jews who have an old property deed from the 1800s and the residents of four homes who have lived there for decades and do not want to pay rent. After Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas cancelled highly anticipated elections, Hamas simply saw an opportunity it could not pass up, exploiting the Sheikh Jarrah situation This dispute is not actually about four houses in East Jerusalem. This is about Hamas seeing a chance to seize the narrative and increase its own influence and control over Palestinians in Jerusalem. Read more here

Hillel Neuer: Turns out the same Palestinian rulers who have no money for vaccines somehow have endless money to manufacture thousands of deadly rockets and construct miles of terror tunnels to attack Israeli civilians. Read more here