Tag: palestine

Beset by virus, Gaza’s hospitals now struggle with wounded

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Just weeks ago, the Gaza Strips feeble health system was struggling with a runaway surge of coronavirus cases. Authorities cleared out hospital operating rooms, suspended nonessential care and redeployed doctors to patients having difficulty breathing.

Then, the bombs began to fall.

This week’s violence between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers has killed 103 Palestinians, including 27 children, and wounded 530 people in the impoverished territory. Israeli airstrikes have pounded apartments, blown up cars and toppled buildings.

Doctors across the crowded coastal enclave are now reallocating intensive care unit beds and scrambling to keep up with a very different health crisis: treating blast and shrapnel wounds, bandaging cuts and performing amputations.

Distraught relatives didn’t wait for ambulances, rushing the wounded by car or on foot to Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest. Exhausted doctors hurried from patient to patient, frantically bandaging shrapnel wounds to stop the bleeding. Others gathered at the hospital morgue, waiting with stretchers to remove the bodies for burial.

At the Indonesia Hospital in the northern town of Jabaliya, the clinic overflowed after bombs fell nearby. Blood was everywhere, with victims lying on the floors of hallways. Relatives crowded the ER, crying out for loved ones and cursing Israel.

Before the military attacks, we had major shortages and could barely manage with the second (virus) wave, said Gaza Health Ministry official Abdelatif al-Hajj by phone as bombs thundered in the background. Now casualties are coming from all directions, really critical casualties. I fear a total collapse.”

Gutted by years of conflict, the impoverished health care system in the territory of more than 2 million people has always been vulnerable. Bitter division between Hamas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and a nearly 14-year blockade imposed by Israel with Egypt’s help also has strangled the infrastructure. There are shortages of equipment and supplies such as blood bags, surgical lamps, anesthesia and antibiotics. Personal protection gear, breathing machines and oxygen tanks remain even scarcer.

Last month, Gaza’s daily coronavirus cases and deaths hit record highs, fueled by the spread of a variant that first appeared in Britain, relaxation of movement restrictions during Ramadan, and deepening public apathy and intransigence.

In the bomb-scarred territory where the unemployment rate is 50%, the need for personal survival often trumps the pleas of public health experts. While virus testing remains limited, the outbreak has infected more than 105,700 people, according to health authorities, and killed 976.

As cases climbed last year, stirring fears of a health care catastrophe, authorities set aside clinics just for COVID-19 patients. But that changed as airstrikes pummeled the territory.

Nurses at the European Hospital in the town of Khan Younis, frantically needing room for the wounded, moved dozens of virus patients in the middle of the night to a different building, said hospital director Yousef al-Akkad. Its surgeons and specialists, who had deployed elsewhere for the virus, rushed back to treat head injuries, fractures and abdominal wounds.

If the conflict intensifies, the hospital won’t be able to care for the virus patients, al-Akkad said.

We have only 15 intensive care beds, and all I can do is pray, he said, adding that because the hospital lacks surgical supplies and expertise, hes already arranged to send one child to Egypt for reconstructive shoulder surgery. I pray these airstrikes will stop soon.

At Shifa, authorities also moved the wounded into its 30 beds that had been set aside for virus patients. Thursday night was the quietest this week for the ICU, as bombs had largely fallen elsewhere in Gaza. Patients with broken bones and other wounds lay amid the din of beeping monitors, intercoms and occasional shouts by doctors. A few relatives huddled around them, recounting the chaotic barrage.

About 12 people down in one airstrike. It was 6 p.m. in the street. Some were killed, including my two cousins and young sister. It is like this every day, said 22-year-old Atallah al-Masri, sitting beside his wounded brother, Ghassan.

Hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia lamented the latest series of blows to Gaza’s health system.

The Gaza Strip is under siege for 14 years, and the health sector is exhausted. Then comes the coronavirus pandemic, he said, adding that most of the equipment is as old as the blockade and can’t be sent out for repairs. Now, his teams already strained by virus cases are treating bombing victims, more than half of whom are critical cases needing surgery. They work relentlessly, he added

To make matters worse, Israeli airstrikes hit two health clinics north of Gaza City on Tuesday. The strikes wreaked havoc on Hala al-Shawa Health Center, forcing employees to evacuate, and damaged the Indonesian Hospital, according to the World Health Organization. Israel, already under pressure from an International Criminal court investigation into possible war crimes during the 2014 war, reiterated this week that it warns people living in targeted areas to flee. The airstrikes nonetheless have killed civilians and inflicted damage on Gaza’s infrastructure.

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The violence also has closed a few dozen health centers conducting coronavirus tests, said Sacha Bootsma, director of WHO’s Gaza office. This week, authorities conducted some 300 tests a day, compared with 3,000 before the fighting began.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, ordered staff to stay home from its 22 clinics for their safety. Those now-closed centers had also administered coronavirus vaccines, a precious resource in a place that waited months to receive a limited shipment from the U.N.-backed COVAX program. Those doses will expire in just a few weeks and get thrown away, with huge implications for authorities’ ability to mobilize additional vaccines in the future,” Bootsma said.

For the newly wounded, however, the virus remains an afterthought.

The last thing that Mohammad Nassar remembers before an airstrike hit was walking home with a friend on a street. When he came to, he said, we found ourselves lying on the ground.

Now the 31-year-old is hooked up to a tangle of tubes and monitors in the Shifa Hospital surgical ward, with a broken right arm and a shrapnel wound in his stomach.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Gal Gadot faces backlash for tweets on Israel-Palestine conflict, disables comments

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Hollywood star and ‘Wonder Woman’ actress Gal Gadot is facing intense backlash on Twitter for a tweet she made regarding the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel.

The actress and former soldier with the Israeli Defence Forces is at the receiving end from netizens after she expressed solidarity with Israel on Wednesday. Supporters of the free Palestine movement are now calling out to boycott her movies and terming her message as ‘ignorant’.

She has disabled the comments on her tweets after being slammed.

“My heart breaks. My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbours deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families. I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we can live side by side in peace. I pray for better days,” she tweeted on May 12.

💔 pic.twitter.com/cLgDdn70No

— Gal Gadot (@GalGadot) May 12, 2021

Many Twitter users took offence and said that Gadot’s tweet was insensitive. Others accused her of “disseminating Israeli propaganda”. She was also accused of “being an apologist for Israeli state sponsored ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”.

Turns out Wonder Woman is actually a villain who supports apartheid, settler colonialism, and military occupation. #FreePalestine https://t.co/iDxKsqFU6u

— Ryan Knight ☭ #FreePalestine (@ProudSocialist) May 13, 2021

Your country is not at war, @GalGadot. Your country is perpetuating war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. There are no “both sides”. There is only the violent, murderous settler-colonialism of Israel. #FREEPALESTINE #GazaUnderAttack #IsraelTerrorism https://t.co/Nvy4heTz0O

— Khairil Anuar (@KhairilAnuar) May 12, 2021

and this is why i can never with good conscience watch anything with gal gadot in it i absolutely refuse #FreePalestine https://t.co/BFujkkS4y0

— 🦋 lis & dina 🦋 (@heydina_) May 12, 2021

However, few others have instead offered their support to Gadot. These users have said that Gadot has only asked for peace and doesn’t deserve the backlash she’s getting.

Gadot, the Israeli born actor, had served the mandatory two years of conscription service in Israel Defence Forces at the age of 20.

The latest escalation in Israel-Palestine relationship comes on the backdrop of an alleged case of forced eviction of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem.

Six Israelis and 65 Palestinians have been killed in the latest exchange of rockets and airstrikes, according to Aljazeera.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

World leaders call for restrain and peace talk as Israel-Palestine conflict escalates

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Israel and Palestine continued airstrikes against each other even as the world leaders called for restraint and peace talks. According to news agency AFP, 67 people have been killed so far, including 17 children, in Gaza and nearly 400 others have sustained injuries after days of near relentless Israeli airstrikes. Meanwhile, Israel has lost six lives to the rocket attacks by Hamas since the beginning of the week.

 According to Israeli officials, around 1,500 rockets had been launched into its territory since the beginning of the week by Palestinian militants. However, Hamas says that it has launched 130 rockets at Israel. On the other hand, the Israeli defence forces have been unleashing airstrikes at identified buildings in Palestine which allegedly house Hamas militants.

World leaders have urged both to abide by the United Nations regulations and sort out issues diplomatically.

 Here is how major countries reacted to the ongoing airstrikes between Israel and Palestine.

 The United States

President Joe Biden has assured Israeli leaders of the US support while urging them to end the fighting. “My expectation and hope are that this will be closing down sooner than later… But Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory,” said Biden.

 Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 12 urged Israel and the Palestinians to take steps towards de-escalation. “Serious concern was expressed about the continuing clashes and the growing number of people killed and wounded,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

 Turkey

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, has said the world needs to give Israel a “strong” lesson. Erdogan suggested that nations should discuss the “idea of sending an international protection force to the region in order to protect Palestinian civilians.” Erdogan has been an advocate of the Palestinian cause.

 United Kingdom

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a tweet on May 12, urged an immediate de-escalation of tensions. “The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, UK’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab has condemned rocket fire into Israel.

 India

India has expressed deep concern at clashes and has called on both sides to avoid changing the status-quo on the ground. In a tweet, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti suggested direct peace talks between the two nations.

China

Like other nations, China too has called for calm and restraint to avoid clashes. Hua Chunying, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said, “China is willing to play a constructive role in the resumption of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in line with UN resolutions along with relevant international parties.”

 Pakistan

Pakistan has sided with Palestine and slammed the attacks on Gaza by Israeli defence forces. “This is yet another reprehensible action during the holy month of Ramadan, following the increased restrictions on the fundamental freedoms of Palestinians, and the attacks in and outside Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said Pakistan’s foreign ministry in a statement.

 Saudi Arabia

Saudi monarch King Salman bin Abdulaziz strongly condemned Israel’s ‘violent acts’ at Al-Aqsa Mosque and measures taken in Jerusalem. He stressed that the kingdom stands with the Palestinian people until they reclaim their legitimate rights. 

 The European Union

The EU has said that only direct negotiations can resolve all the problems between Israelis and Palestinians. It also condemned rocket attacks by Hamas. “The firing of rockets from Gaza against civilian populations in Israel is totally unacceptable and feeds escalatory dynamics,” the European Commission said in a statement issued late on May 10.

 Japan

The Japanese government in a statement expressed its serious concern about the ongoing escalation between Israel and Palestine. 

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Explained: How Jerusalem tensions triggered heaviest Israel-Palestine fighting in years

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Weeks of violent clashes in East Jerusalem have ignited the heaviest fighting in years between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

At the core of the violence that has left dozens dead are tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over Jerusalem, which contains sites sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

As both sides appear to be digging in for more prolonged fighting, here are some of the factors that triggered the escalation.

Ramadan Protests, Jerusalem Evictions

Since the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in mid-April, Palestinians have faced off nightly in East Jerusalem with Israeli police, who put up barriers to stop evening gatherings at the walled Old City’s Damascus Gate.

Palestinians saw the barriers as a restriction on their freedom to assemble. Police said they were there to maintain order.

Tensions have also been high over a long-running legal case that could see multiple Palestinian families evicted from their homes to make way for Israeli settlers who, backed by an Israeli court ruling, want to move in.

The violence quickly spread to the Old City compound containing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam and the most sensitive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured in fighting with police in the compound and around the Old City in recent days.

‘Red Line’

Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas and other militant groups in the enclave repeatedly warned Israel that the fighting in Jerusalem was a “red line,” and vowed to fire rockets if Israeli police did not stop their raids on the Aqsa compound.

As Israel commemorated its capture of East Jerusalem in a 1967 war with a march on Monday, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group fired rocket barrages towards Jerusalem and its surrounding suburbs.

Israel had “ignited fire in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and the flames extended to Gaza, therefore, it is responsible for the consequences,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said.

Within hours, Israeli warplanes began bombing militant targets in Gaza, with the military saying that civilian casualties “cannot be ruled out” in the densely populated coastal territory.

The fighting has since escalated dramatically with militants firing hundreds of rockets towards Tel Aviv and Israel carrying out hundreds of air strikes in Gaza.

Violence has also broken out in mixed Arab-Jewish cities across Israel, with members of Israel’s 21% Arab minority angry over the Jerusalem evictions and Gaza violence.

Hamas Interests, Israeli Politics

The most intensive aerial exchanges between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in Gaza have prompted international concern that the situation could spiral out of control.

But Hamas also appeared to see the escalation as an opportunity to marginalise Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and present itself as the guardian of Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Hamas has amassed some 7,000 rockets, as well as 300 anti-tank and 100 anti-aircraft missiles, since the 2014 war, an Israeli military commander said during a briefing in February. Islamic Jihad has amassed 6,000 rockets, the commander said. The groups have neither confirmed nor denied the Israeli estimates.

Some Israeli commentators said Hamas could also see the timing as opportune with Israel in political flux as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents try to form a government that could unseat him after an inconclusive March 23 election.

Other commentators have said that Netanyahu appeared to be distracted by his trial on corruption charges he denies, allowing tensions to surge in Jerusalem and spill over into Gaza.

Gaza has for years had limited access to the outside world because of a blockade led by Israel and supported by Egypt, who both cite security concerns over Hamas for the restrictions.

Jerusalem at Core of Conflict

Politics, history and religion all place Jerusalem at the centre of the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City is the hill known to Jews across the world as Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism — and to Muslims internationally as The Noble Sanctuary. It was home to the Jewish temples of antiquity. Two Muslim holy places now stand there, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Christians also revere the city as the place where they believe that Jesus preached, died and was resurrected.

Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern section as a capital of a future state. Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem is unrecognised internationally.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Peace and conflict in Israel-Palestine: Here’s a timeline

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The decades-old Israel-Palestine conflict has yet again flared up with intensive fighting, rocket launches and airstrikes from both sides on May 12. According to the latest figures by the governments of both sides, 35 Palestinians, including nine children and a woman, and five Israelis have been killed in airstrikes.

Israel responded with hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza till May 12 morning in retaliation to the multiple rocket attacks by Islamist groups and other Palestinian militants at Tel Aviv and Beersheba.

Israel-Palestine conflict: Catch the LIVE updates here

The ‘heavy-handed’ policing of Arabs in Israel during Ramadan and the subsequent rocket strikes by Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, is said to be the main cause of escalation in the hostility between the two nations in the Middle East.

Here is a timeline of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

957 BC: In the early years of the Israelite kingdom, King Solomon got the First Temple constructed.

590 BC: The Temple suffered at the hands of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylonia, who removed the Temple treasures in 604 BCE and 597 BCE and totally destroyed it in 587/586.

538 BC: Cyrus II, founder of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia and conqueror of Babylonia issued an order allowing exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.

515 BC: The Second Temple was completed in 515 BCE under the leadership of the last three Jewish Prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

70 BC: The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans.

7^th Century: The siege of Jerusalem was part of the Muslim conquest of the Levant and the result of the military efforts of the Rashidun Caliphate against the Byzantine Empire.

15^th Century: In 1481 the Inquisition — a Roman Catholic tribunal for discovery and punishment of heresy — started in Spain. Conversos (Secret Jews) and New Christians were targeted because of their close relations to the Jewish community.

19^th Century: Theodor Herzl founded the World Zionist Organization in 1897 to serve as the organizational framework for the Zionist movement.

Post World War I: Britain was given the mandate for Palestine and Transjordan (the territories that include the area of present-day Israel, Jordan, West Bank and the Gaza Strip).  Jewish immigration to Palestine continued to grow significantly during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine and Palestinian nationalism was the answer to it.

Post World War II: Britain lifted its control over the area in 1948 and the Jews declared the creation of the state of Israel as it couldn’t resolve the issue between the Jews and the Arabs. An armed conflict started between the two sides as Palestinians strongly objected to the creation of Israel as a separate state.

May 15, 1948: First Arab-Israeli War begins

1948-1949: 7,00,000 Palestinians become refugees

1949: Israel Signs Armistice Agreements with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria

July 1956: Second Arab-Israeli War erupts over the Suez Crisis

June 2, 1964: Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) formed

June 5, 1967: ‘Six-Day War’ takes place. As many as 2,50,000 Palestinians become displaced after Six-Day War

Dec. 9, 1987: First Palestinian Intifada begins. The intifada broke out in the heart of Arab Jerusalem itself.

1991: Israel enters first direct negotiations with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians as part of the Madrid Conference.

September 13, 1993: Oslo Peace Accord is signed by Israel and the PLO

May 4, 1994:  Cairo Agreement is signed between Israel and the PLO

November 5, 1995: Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin assassinated

August 27, 2001: Israel assassinates the Leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

March 27, 2002: Hamas suicide attack kills 30 Israeli civilians during Passover Seder

March 29 – April 21, 2002: Israel launches operation defensive shield and invades and occupies much of the West Bank

July 8, 2014: Israel launches operation protective edge against Hamas militants in Gaza

March 16, 2015: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says no to a two-state solution on eve of the election.

February 5, 2021: International Criminal Court rules it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes in Israel-occupied territories

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Kerala woman killed in Palestinian rocket strike in Israel

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A Keralite woman working in Israel was killed allegedly in a Palestinian rocket strike on Tuesday, her family members said here. They said the rocket fell on the residence of 31-year old Soumya in the city of Ashkelon while she was talking to her husband Santhosh, who is in Kerala, over video call in the evening.

“My brother heard a huge sound during the video call.Suddenly the phone got disconnected. Then we immediately contacted fellow Malayalees working there. Thus we came to know about the incident,” Santhosh’s brother Saji told P T I.

Soumya, hailing from Keerithodu in Idukki district, had been working as a housemaid in Israel for the last seven years, her relatives said. There is no official confirmation about the incident so far.

Newly-elected MLA and Nationalist Congress Kerala leader Mani C Kappan condemned the incident. In a Facebook post, Kappan, who is representing Pala seat in the Kerala Assembly, said thousands of Keralites working in Israel were living in fear.

He also sought intervention of the Central and state governments in the issue..

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Explained: What’s behind the clashes in Jerusalem?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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For weeks now, Palestinian protesters and the Israeli police have clashed on a daily basis in and around Jerusalem’s Old City, home to major religious sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims and the emotional epicentre of the Middle East conflict.

Jerusalem has been the scene of violent confrontations between Jews and Arabs for 100 years and remains one of the most bitterly contested cities on earth. The latest clashes began a month ago with an Israeli move to block some Palestinian gatherings at the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, already a time of heightened religious sensitivities. After those restrictions eased, tensions over a plan to evict dozens of Palestinians from an east Jerusalem neighbourhood continued to fuel confrontations.

On Monday, stun grenades echoed across a holy hilltop compound, and hundreds of Palestinians were hurt in clashes between stone-throwing protesters and police firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Police were also injured.

Here’s a look at why Jerusalem always seems to be on edge — and what set off the latest round of violence.

CAPITAL OF TWO PEOPLES

Israel views Jerusalem as its “unified, eternal” capital. It had captured east Jerusalem, which includes the Old City, in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians want those territories for their future state, with East Jerusalem serving as their eventual capital. But Israel annexed the eastern part of the city in a move not recognized internationally.

The fate of east Jerusalem has been one of the thorniest issues in the peace process, which ground to a halt more than a decade ago.

Israelis on Monday were set to mark Jerusalem Day, a national holiday celebrating the annexation. In past years, thousands of Israelis — mainly religious nationalists — have marched through the Old City, including the densely populated Muslim Quarter, in a display considered provocative by many Palestinians.

In recent days, hard-line Israelis have staged other events in east Jerusalem, leading to scattered, violent altercations with Palestinians.

THE HOLY HILLTOP

Monday’s clashes took place in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City. The mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam and sits on a sprawling plateau that is also home to the iconic golden Dome of the Rock. Muslims refer to the compound as the Noble Sanctuary.

The walled plateau is also the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of biblical temples. Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 AD., with only the Western Wall remaining. The mosques were built centuries later.

Neighboring Jordan serves as the custodian of the site, which is operated by an Islamic endowment known as the Waqf. The site is open to tourists during certain times but only Muslims are allowed to pray there. The Western Wall is the holiest site where Jews can pray.

In recent years, groups of religious and nationalist Jews escorted by police have been visiting the compound in greater numbers and holding prayers in defiance of rules established after 1967 by Israel, Jordan and Muslim religious authorities. The Palestinians view the frequent visits and attempted prayers by Jews as a provocation, and it often ignites scuffles or more serious violence.

Some Israelis say the site should be open to all worshippers. The Palestinians refuse, fearing that Israel will eventually take over the site or partition it. Israeli officials say they have no intention of changing the status quo.

DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES

Jews born in east Jerusalem are Israeli citizens, while Palestinians from east Jerusalem are granted a form of permanent residency that can be revoked if they live outside the city for an extended period. They can apply for citizenship, but it’s a long and uncertain process and most choose not to because they don’t recognize Israeli control.

Israel has built Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem that are home to some 220,000 people. It has severely limited the growth of Palestinian neighbourhoods, leading to overcrowding and the unauthorized construction of thousands of homes that are at risk of demolition.

The Israeli rights group B’Tselem and the New York-based Human Rights Watch cited the discriminatory policies in east Jerusalem in recent reports arguing that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid. Israel rejects those allegations, saying Jerusalem residents are treated equally.

THREATENED EVICTIONS

The recent nightly clashes began at the start of Ramadan, when Israeli police placed barriers outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate, a popular gathering place after the evening prayers during the holy month when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. They later removed the barriers but then protests escalated over the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

The families have been embroiled in a long legal battle with ideological Jewish settlers who seek to acquire property in crowded Palestinian neighbourhoods just outside the Old City. Israel portrays it as a private real-estate dispute, but the families’ plight has attracted global attention.

WIDER UNREST

Clashes in Jerusalem, and particularly in Al-Aqsa, often reverberate across the region.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, has called for a new intifada, or uprising, like the one triggered by an Israeli politician’s visit to Al-Aqsa in 2000. Gaza militants have fired rockets and balloons with incendiary devices attached to them in support of the protesters as an informal cease-fire with Israel has started to fray.

Protests have been held in the occupied West Bank and in Arab communities inside Israel. A series of deadly shootings in the West Bank last week has also heightened tensions.

Jordan and other Arab nations that have friendly ties with Israel have condemned its crackdown on the protests, while Israel’s archenemy Iran has encouraged Palestinian attacks. The US and the EU have condemned the violence and expressed concern about the evictions.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow