Understand everything. Israel strikes Lebanon and Gaza after rocket attacks: Why is the Middle East on fire again?

It was the sharpest rise in tensions to hit the Middle East since earlier in the week. Israel launched an attack on southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Friday, April 7, targeting the positions of the Palestinian movement Hamas.

Indeed, at 4:30 last night (3:30 a.m. French time), the Israeli military confirmed that it had “struck targets, including terrorist infrastructure belonging to Hamas in southern Lebanon,” for the first time since April 2022.

As for the Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, shortly before midnight they hit a total of ten targets, including tunnels, a heavy machine gun and Hamas arms workshops.

“Israel’s Retaliation Will Cost Our Enemies”

The Israeli strikes came in response to rocket fire launched by the Jewish state northward from Lebanon on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed a firm response to rocket attacks against Israel. “Israel’s Response […] Our enemies will pay a heavy price,” the government chief said after the Defense Cabinet meeting.

It was the largest attack from Lebanon since clashes broke out between Israel and the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah in 2006.

entered Al-Aqsa Mosque

But why the sudden resurgence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? The answer will be found in the events at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Wednesday, April 5.

Israeli security forces stormed the shrine, Islam’s third holiest site, as worshipers gathered for night prayers. Videos of the intervention, showing police rousing people in the stadium, have spread as far as France:

To add fuel to the fire, an explosion in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan (March 22 – April 21) coincided with the Jewish Passover dates this year, which was experienced as a real shame by the Muslim community. Passover.

Instigated by a Jewish group?

According to The WorldTensions around the mosque are said to be explained by young Palestinians barricading themselves inside the mosque in the face of a threat of provocation by a group of Messianic Jews to slaughter a lamb to mark the first day of Passover.

For its part, the local police released a video in which we can see explosions similar to fireworks stored inside the mosque. In other images, riot control officers can be seen advancing through the shrine, shielding themselves from rocket fire.

“After several and prolonged failed attempts to evict them through negotiations, police forces were forced in. [d’intervenir] To expel them for purpose […] to prevent violent disturbances,” Israel Police also said in a statement.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is located in a particularly combustible location in Jerusalem, as it sits on the esplanade of mosques, or the Temple Mount for the Jewish people, which is Judaism’s first holiest site. The mosque is bordered by the Wailing Wall, another holy site for Jews.

Was Hezbollah involved?

So these events led to an explosion of violence with thirty or more rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israel. And to make matters worse, Hezbollah may be involved. Based in Lebanon, this Shiite Islamist group is a supporter of Iran, a major enemy of the Israeli state, which helps it strengthen its position in the Middle East.

Before the rockets were launched on Thursday, April 6, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safideen had warned that any attack on al-Aqsa would “ignite the entire region.”

“Every explosion will be answered with an explosion and any attack against al-Aqsa or the believers. [musulmans] The answer will be found,” Islamic Jihad said.