Netanyahu Warns Hamas Will Pay a 'Heavy Price' for Rocket Fire on Jerusalem

The Hamas militant group on Monday launched a rare rocket strike on Jerusalem after hundreds of Palestinians were hurt in clashes with Israeli police at an iconic mosque, as tensions in the holy city pushed the region closer to full-fledged war.

Israel responded with airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, where 20 people, including nine children, were killed in fighting.

It was a long day of anger and deadly violence that laid bare Jerusalem’s deep divisions, even as Israel tried to celebrate its capture of the city’s eastern sector and its sensitive holy sites more than half a century ago. With dozens of rockets flying into Israel throughout the night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with top security officials and warned that the fighting could drag on, despite calls for calm from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.

“The terrorist organizations in Gaza have crossed a red line and attacked us with missiles in the outskirts of Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said. “Whoever attacks us will pay a heavy price,” he said, warning that the fighting could “continue for some time.”

By late Monday, the military had carried out dozens of airstrikes across Gaza, targeting what it said were Hamas military installations and operatives. It said a Hamas tunnel, rocket launchers and at least eight militants had been hit.

Gaza health officials gave no further breakdowns on the casualties. At least 13 of the 20 deaths in Gaza were attributed to the airstrikes. Seven of the deaths were members of a single family, including three children, who died in a mysterious explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It was not clear if the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike or errant rocket.

Shortly before midnight, the Israeli army said at least 150 rockets had been fired into Israel. That included a barrage of six rockets that targeted Jerusalem, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) away. It set off air raid sirens throughout Jerusalem, and explosions could be heard in what was believed to be the first time the city had been targeted since a 2014 war.

Dozens of rockets were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. But one landed near a home on the outskirts of Jerusalem, causing light damage to the structure and sparking a brush fire nearby. In southern Israel, an Israeli man was lightly wounded after a missile struck a vehicle.

Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ military wing, said the attack on Jerusalem was a response to what he called Israeli “crimes and aggression” in the city. “This is a message the enemy has to understand well,” he said.

He threatened more attacks if Israeli forces re-entered the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque compound or carried out planned evictions of Palestinian families from an east Jerusalem neighborhood.

The mosque is in a hilltop compound that is the third-holiest site in Israel and the holiest in Judaism. Tensions at the site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, have triggered repeated bouts of violence in the past.

In Monday’s unrest, Israeli police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets in clashes with stone-throwing Palestinians at the compound.

More than a dozen tear gas canisters and stun grenades landed in the mosque as police and protesters faced off inside the walled compound that surrounds it, said an Associated Press photographer at the scene. Smoke rose in front of the mosque and the golden-domed shrine on the site, and rocks littered the nearby plaza. Inside one area of the compound, shoes and debris lay scattered over ornate carpets.

Over 500 Palestinians were hurt, including 333 people who required care at hospitals and clinics, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Palestinians and police reported renewed clashes late Monday. Israeli police also reported unrest in northern Israel, where Arab protesters burned tires and threw stones and fireworks at security forces. Police said 46 people were arrested.

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[ddoperations]

This will never stop until one side kills the entire other side.

[Kparris]

Do I think US soldiers should be fighting in this conflict? No. But I wish my Israeli brothers the best. Any group that launches rockets into civilian crowds, or uses children as human shields, deserves the sword.

[karimabdurahim]

You guys are not showing the real events happening there

[wadepatterson]

Strange.. with Trump gone everything is going to hell in a handbag...but he was the problem....rriiiggghhht

[ThexBorg]

What a nice distraction for Bibi to avoid his criminal case and the fact he's still not the PM... but the media won't let that get in the way.

[crisseven]

Zec 12:1 - A prophecy: The word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares:

Zec 12:2 - “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem.

Zec 12:3 - On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.

Zec 12:4 - On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness, ” declares the LORD. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.

Zec 12:5 - Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’

Zec 12:6 - “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

Zec 12:7 - “The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.

Zec 12:8 - On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them.

Zec 12:9 - On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

Zec 12:10 - “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

Zec 12:11 - On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

Zec 12:12 - The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives,

Zec 12:13 - the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives,

Zec 12:14 - and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

It is amazing that we are living through these times.

Zec 14:1 - A day of the LORD is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.

Zec 14:2 - I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

Zec 14:3 - Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.

Zec 14:4 - On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

Zec 14:5 - You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake[fn] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

Zec 14:6 - On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness.

Zec 14:7 - It will be a unique day—a day known only to the LORD—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.

Zec 14:8 - On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.

Zec 14:9 - The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

Joel 3:1 - “In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

Joel 3:2 - I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.

Things will get worse before they get better. Nevertheless, we are living in exciting times. Our Lord Jesus’s return is at the door 🙏🏼✝️

[kiethmergard]

Traditionally Arab? I call bs. The Israelis were there roughly 50ish years after Ramses I believe it was. They were then expanding through conquest and marriage. From what I understand, it is traditionally Jewish land that has never been formally given over by the Israeli people.

[iSpecyouirl]

America: fist fight leads to drive-by shootings

Israel: fist fight leads to rocket launchers

[michaelmunoz]

There is no such thing as a "traditional arab nation in Jerusalem"

[God_is_Justice]

““But if you or your children stop following me, and don’t obey the laws and commands that I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, I will force Israel to leave the land that I have given to them. Israel will be an example to other people. Other people will make jokes about Israel. I made the Temple holy. It is the place where people honor me. But I will tear it down.”
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭9:6-7‬

[danielgreen]

They will figure it out. I pray no other countries intervene.

[sajjadkazi]

his attack on palestine killed 9 children and 11 others

[mrk]

And the sad part is they’re fighting for nothing

[sammclaughlin]

He needs to be removed from office asap. The fact that so many people are okay with the genocide of Palestinians is fucking wild.

[wayartio]

Has anyone seen Hillary around? Asking for a friend!

[dracovirals]

Liberals are playing at these poor people

[cynthiajones]

God's son Jesus is coming soon, I urge you to believe, repent, and trust in Him, dont be left behind.

[AladeenWashington]

Sleepy Joe can't keep everything together

[Bookerdevin]

Hamas knew what was coming and still messed with Israel anyway

[deplorable]

No more U.S. lives, let them defend themselves