Violence spreads, fires engulf towns

AS CLASHES continue in East Jerusalem with the pending eviction of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, to make way for Israeli settlers, the repeated raids into Al Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces and the rising death toll in Gaza, anger within Israel’s Green Line has reached boiling point.

On Wednesday Israel declared a state of emergency and a night curfew in the northern city of Lod, where a young Palestinian man was shot dead by an Israeli on Monday. Protesters clashed with Israeli forces during the funeral procession on Tuesday night.

This was the second time in the city’s history that a state of emergency had been declared, the first being in 1966 just before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Benny Gantz refused to acknowledge the violence was related to events in security forces on protesters whom they labelled “criminals”.

Clashes were also reported overnight in other Palestinian cities in northern Israel, including Akko, Tiberius, Deir Al Asad and Qalansuwa during which property, police stations and cars were attacked and burnt while fires engulfed the towns of Wadi Ara, Jisr as Zarqa and Um al Fahm.

Israeli police responded with stun grenades and rubber bullets before arresting dozens of Palestinians.

There were also reports of gunmen opening fire on Israeli police in Beer Sheba in the south of Israel.

Israeli Police Chief Kobi Shabtai said this kind of violence had not been seen since the second Palestinian Intifada – which erupted in October 2000 after former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon paid a controversial visit to Al Aqsa Mosque despite warnings against this by Israeli security officials.

Palestinian fury also spread to refugee camps, cities, towns and border crossing points in the West Bank with two young Palestinian men shot dead by Israeli soldiers overnight on Wednesday after Israeli troops raided a number of areas and carried out arrests of journalists, students and Hamas supporters.

Palestinian gunmen traded gunfire with Israeli forces in Jenin in the northern West Bank, Qalandia refugee camp near Ramallah and Anata northeast of Jerusalem. Clashes between Palestinian protesters also took place all over the West Bank.

Israel said it had the right to defend itself from Gaza rockets and no country would sit by idly as its civilian population was attacked.