The fighting between the Israeli Army and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement of Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been fierce in recent days and has not shown any signs of abating.
According to the Israeli military on May 14, Hamas forces fired about 1,500 rockets at Israel in the past three days. In response, Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Hamas. The fighting between the two sides resulted in many casualties. It can be said that this is the bloodiest clash between Israel and the Palestinian armed group since 2014. So what caused the conflict to escalate so seriously?
“Such is the power of Jerusalem. A situation that began in one neighborhood in Jerusalem has now spread across the area and brought international attention to Israel and the Palestinian territories once again,” CNN commentators said. According to CNN, Jerusalem has been on the brink of conflict for weeks, with Palestinians angered by Israel’s closure of a popular square since the Ramadan beginning, and the fact that seven Palestinian families are likely to be expelled by Israel from their homes in East Jerusalem. The Palestinian families have been living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, just north of the Old City, since 1956.
Nahalat Shimon, an Israeli nationalist organization, uses a 1970 law, claiming that the owners of the land before 1948 were Jewish families. Therefore, the Palestinian occupiers should be expelled from here and their property returned to the Israeli Jews. Meanwhile, Palestinians protested, saying this was unfair.
In statements on May 10, Hamas in the Gaza Strip pledged to stand with the Palestinian people. And the Hamas movement decided to intervene by launching a series of rockets towards Israeli territory. Immediately, the Israeli Army retaliated.
Founded thousands of years BC, the city of Jerusalem is one of the holiest sites of the world’s three major religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied all of Jerusalem, claiming the city as its capital, although it was not widely recognized by the international community.
On the Palestinian side, they have always considered East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Conflicts between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters frequently occur over the sovereignty of this sacred land.
