European officials warned X on Tuesday that the company formerly known as Twitter appears to have been hosting misinformation and illegal content about the war between Hamas and Israel, in potential violation of the European Union’s signature content moderation law.
In a letter addressed to X owner Elon Musk, Thierry Breton, a top European commissioner, said X faces “very precise obligations regarding content moderation” and that the company’s handling of the unfolding conflict so far has raised doubts about its compliance.
As a platform subject to Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA), X could face billions in fines if regulators conclude that violations have occurred. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The warning letter highlights X’s potentially vast legal exposure as it battles a wave of bogus claims linked to the war that have been attributed to everything from fake White House press releases to false news reports and out-of-context videos from unrelated conflicts or even video games.
Much of the problematic content appears to stem from platform changes made under Musk’s supervision, Breton suggested in the letter, which he shared on X.
For example, he wrote, X announced over the weekend that it was making it easier for accounts to qualify for newsworthiness exceptions to its platform rules. The change to X’s Public Interest Policy made it so that accounts no longer require a minimum of 100,000 followers to qualify; they need only be “high profile” accounts that, as before, represent current or potential government officials, political parties or political candidates.
Removing the follower threshold and replacing it with a celebrity standard leaves it “uncertain” what content, particularly “violent and terrorist content that appears to circulate on your platform,” will be removed, Breton wrote.
Under the DSA, which became enforceable for large platforms in August, companies must also act swiftly when officials highlight content that violates European laws, which X may not be doing, Breton warned.
“We have, from qualified sources, reports about potentially illegal content circulating on your service despite flags from relevant authorities,” Breton wrote.
“I remind you that following the opening of a potential investigation and a finding of non-compliance, penalties can be imposed,” he added.
In an exchange on X, Musk replied to Breton. “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports,” Musk wrote. “Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that that the public can see them.”
Breton posted back: “You are well aware of your users’ — and authorities’— reports on fake content and glorification of violence. Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk. My team remains at your disposal to ensure DSA compliance, which the EU will continue to enforce rigorously.”
The EU letter comes as misinformation about the conflict continues to spread widely across X.
On Tuesday, the investigative journalism group Bellingcat said a fake video designed to look like a BBC News report was circulating on social media.
The video falsely claimed Bellingcat found evidence that Ukraine had smuggled weapons to Hamas. Elliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat, said the report was “100% fake.”
In an effort to make the video look like a real BBC News report, its creators used graphics almost identical to what the BBC uses in its own online video reports.
The video circulated on Telegram and was shared by at least one verified account on X.
X did not remove the fake BBC News video, but it did append a small label under the video noting it is “manipulated media.”
In response to a question about the fake video, a BBC spokesperson said, “In a world of increasing disinformation, we urge everyone to ensure they are getting news from a trusted source.”
Shayan Sardarizadeh, a BBC News reporter, wrote on X Tuesday, “The video is 100% fake.”
Since taking over, Musk has laid off large swaths of X’s content moderation and policy teams, prompting backlash from civil society groups, which have warned about an increased threat of misinformation and hate speech.
In what he called an effort to deter the creation of automated accounts, Musk also eliminated the traditional verification badges that once reassured users of an account’s authenticity, replacing it with a paid system that has allowed any user to receive a verification badge without undergoing an identity check. Misinformation experts have said that the move undermined users’ ability to determine the credibility of any given account, particularly during a fast-moving news event.
But Musk himself has directly contributed to the chaos, at one point sharing – and then deleting – a post recommending that users follow an account that has been known to share misinformation, including a fake report earlier this year of an explosion at the Pentagon.
Rival Palestinian political leaders meeting in Egypt have decided to form a committee on intra-Palestinian reconciliation.
President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met for rare face-to-face talks on Sunday in the coastal city of El Alamein along with representatives of most Palestinian political factions.
The latest attempt at reconciliation aims to bridge the gap between the parallel governments of Hamas in the blockaded Gaza Strip and of the Palestinian Authority – controlled by Abbas’s Fatah movement – which administers Palestinian-run areas of the occupied West Bank.
“I consider today’s meeting of the general secretaries of the Palestinian factions a first and important step in continuing our dialogue, which we hope will achieve the desired goals as soon as possible,” Abbas said in a statement after the meeting.
The 87-year-old president announced “the formation of a committee to continue the dialogue … end divisions and achieve Palestinian national unity”.
“We must return to a single state, a single system, a single law and a single legitimate army,” Abbas added.
Earlier on Sunday, Haniyeh called on Abbas to end “security collaboration” with Israel and “political arrests”, according to participants at the meeting.
The Hamas leader also said “a new, inclusive parliament must be formed on the basis of free democratic elections”.
Hamas won the Palestinians’ last legislative elections in 2006, but became the de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip a year later after wresting control from Fatah, which had attempted a pre-emptive coup to replace the Hamas-led government. Several weeks of violent fighting followed, resulting in Hamas ruling over the coastal enclave while Fatah – the dominant party in the Palestinian Authority – exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank.
Call for PLO reform
A later statement from Abbas said he “hopes for an upcoming meeting soon in Egypt to announce to our people the end” of the 17-year split “and the return to Palestinian national unity”.
Palestinian political scientist Moukhaimer Abu Saada told AFP news agency that the formation of the committee was no cause for celebration.
“The best way to kill something is to form a committee for it,” he said, speaking from Gaza.
He said he doubted the move would produce any progress towards “ending the division or setting a date for Palestinian elections”.
On Sunday, Haniyeh called for “the restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organization”, the umbrella institution promoting Palestinian statehood. The PLO includes most Palestinian political factions, but not Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
The PLO is “the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”, Abbas said.
“It is not permissible for any Palestinian to have reservations about this organisation and its national and political programme,” Abbas said. “Rather, it is necessary to unanimously protect it, because it is considered one of the most important gains of our people.”
He also called for “peaceful popular resistance”, while Haniyeh touted “comprehensive resistance”.
The last time the two leaders officially met was last July in Algiers, after a five-year gap.
Uptick in violence
Abbas and Haniyeh were joined by the heads of other factions, except for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and two other groups.
The PIJ had made the release of prisoners held by PA security forces a condition for sending representatives to El Alamein.
Khaled al-Batsh, a PIJ leader, said the group had “hoped for a response from Mahmoud Abbas to grievances and calls for the release” of its members detained in the occupied West Bank.
“We have been surprised by an unprecedented security incursion against resistance fighters,” he said.
Sunday’s meeting came amid a resurgence of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.
More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces this year alone.
Officials have warned that 2023 is on track to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the United Nations began keeping track of fatalities in 2005.
Jerusalem — Hundreds of Israeli settlers on Wednesday stormed into a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to dozens of cars and homes to avenge the deaths of four Israelis killed by Palestinian gunmen the previous day, residents said. The settler attack came as the Israeli military deployed additional forces across the occupied West Bank, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to build 1,000 new settler homes in response to the deadly shooting.
The moves threatened to further raise tensions after two days of deadly fighting in the West Bank that included a daylong Israeli military raid in a Palestinian militant stronghold and Tuesday’s mass shooting.
Israeli settlers stormed the Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya, in the occupied West Bank, June 21, 2023, setting fire to Palestinian homes and vehicles.
Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Palestinian residents and human rights groups have long complained about Israel’s inability or refusal to halt settler violence.
Settlers attack Palestinian town after 4 Israelis shot
Israeli media identified the four civilians killed in the Tuesday shooting as Harel Masood, 21, Ofer Fayerman, 64, and Elisha Anteman, 18, Nahman-Shmuel Mordoff, 17. An Israeli civilian killed one assailant at the scene, while Israeli troops chased and killed the second shooter after he fled.
Israeli forensics police work at the scene of an attack near the Jewish settlement of Eli, in the north of the occupied West Bank, June 20, 2023. Four people were shot dead near the settlement, Israeli officials said, a day after an army raid left seven Palestinians dead.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty
In Wednesday’s violence, sparked by the shooting, residents in Turmus Ayya said some 400 Israeli settlers marched down the town’s main road, setting fire to cars, homes and trees. Mayor Lafi Adeeb said about 30 houses and 60 cars were partly or totally burned.
“The attacks intensified in the past hour even after the army came,” he said.
At least eight Palestinians were hurt during the ensuing clashes, which the army tried to disperse by firing rubber bullets and tear gas. By the midafternoon, he said the situation was calming down, though Palestinian hospital officials said three people were hurt by live Israeli fire.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The settler attack brought back memories of a settler rampage last February in which dozens of cars and homes were torched in the town of Hawara following the killing of a pair of Israeli brothers by a Palestinian gunman.
Netanyahu vows to strike “hard,” expand settlements
The shooting Tuesday in the settlement of Eli came a day after seven Palestinians were killed in a daylong battle against Israeli troops in the militant stronghold of Jenin. The worsening violence has created a test for Israel’s government and prompted calls — including by a far-right member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet — for a widespread military operation in the West Bank.
As Israel deployed more forces to the area, Netanyahu said he had approved plans to build 1,000 new homes in Eli.
“Our answer to terror is to strike it hard and to build our country,” Netanyahu said.
The international community opposes settlements on occupied lands that are sought by the Palestinians for a future independent state. Netanyahu’s government — the most far-right cabinet ever in Israel — is dominated by settler leaders and supporters. Opposition within Israel to controversial policies espoused by Netanyahu’s coalition government drove regular street protests earlier this year.
The army said it was beefing up its troop presence in the West Bank. On Wednesday morning, it said troops arrested three suspects in the Palestinian village of Urif in connection to the Tuesday attack and mapped out the homes of the two gunmen ahead of their likely demolition. Israel demolishes the homes of Palestinian attackers as part of a policy it says aims to deter others, but critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.
Hamas did not officially claim responsibility for the attack, although it identified the two gunmen — Mohannad Faleh, 26, who was killed by a civilian at the scene and Khaled Sabah, 24, who was killed by the army as he fled — as its members.
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s attack, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian property in adjacent villages, causing extensive property damage. At least five Palestinians were wounded in attacks by Israeli settlers, Israel’s army radio reported.
7 Palestinians killed in Jenin clash
Tuesday’s shooting followed a massive gunbattle between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops in the northern Jenin refugee camp a day earlier.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian death toll from the raid rose to seven when 15-year-old Sadeel Naghniyeh succumbed to wounds sustained in the gunbattle, Palestinian health officials said.
Palestinian school girls mourn during the funeral of their classmate, 15-year-old Sadil Naghnaghiya, in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 21, 2023. Naghnaghiya died from gunshot wounds sustained during an hours-long Israeli incursion in Jenin on June 19, the Palestinian health ministry announced.
AFP/Getty
Some 90 Palestinians and eight Israeli soldiers were also wounded in the shootout.
A deadly six months
Tuesday’s deadly shooting was the latest in a long string of violence in the region over the past year and half that shows no sign of relenting. At least 130 Palestinians and 24 people on the Israeli side have been killed so far this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Israel has been staging near-nightly raids in the West Bank in response to a string of deadly Palestinian attacks targeting Israeli civilians early in 2022. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state.
Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday targeting Islamic Jihad leaders and facilities, the Israeli military said. The Palestinian militant group said three of its senior commanders were killed, along with members of their families, as they slept in the early morning hours when their houses were struck.
Palestinian officials said 13 people were killed in the morning strikes in total, including at least four children and four women, including the wives and some neighbors of the the Islamic Jihad militants.
Family members and media crowd around the bodies of four children and one women, all family members of Islamic Jihad militant group commanders who were also killed, in Gaza City, in the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, May 9, 2023, after Israeli airstrikes killed a total of 13 people, according to Palestinian officials.
CBS/Marwan Alghoul
Israel’s military said it had targeted the residences of three senior commanders of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, along with weapons and a cement manufacturing facility used to make smuggling tunnels. Witnesses reported explosions on the top floor of an apartment building in Gaza City and a house in the southern city of Rafah. Airstrikes continued into the early hours of Tuesday.
The Israeli army said the aerial bombings, codenamed “Operation Shield and Arrow,” targeted Khalil Bahtini, the Islamic Jihad commander for northern Gaza Strip; Tareq Izzeldeen, the group’s intermediary between its Gaza and West Bank members; and Jehad Ghanam, the secretary of the Islamic Jihad’s military council. It said the three were responsible for recent rocket fire toward Israel.
The airstrikes come as tension boils between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the militant Hamas group. The tension is linked to increasing violence in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has been conducting near daily raids for the past months to detain Palestinians suspected in planning or carrying out attacks on Israelis.
CBS News’ Marwan Alghoul said the more than half of a million inhabitants of Gaza City were jolted awake at about 2 a.m. to the sound of the first strikes as two homes in the city were struck. Alghoul said Islamic Jihad confirmed that its three leaders, along with their wives and some of their children, were killed, and the group quickly vowed a harsh response to the assassinations.
A Palestinian man inspects damage to his building following Israeli airstrikes on an apartment of an Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza City, May 9, 2023.
Fatima Shbair/AP
In anticipation of Palestinian rocket attacks in response to the strikes, the Israeli military issued instructions advising residents of communities within 25 miles of Gaza to stay close to designated bomb shelters.
In a worrying sign that the crossfire could escalate, an umbrella group of Palestinian armed factions led by Gaza’s Hamas rulers issued a statement mourning those killed in Tuesday’s airstrikes and warning that Israel should be held “fully responsible for the repercussions of this cowardly crime.” Hamas has fought multiple wars with Israel, and if it decides to retaliate on behalf of the wider Palestinian factions it could draw much wider strikes on targets across Gaza by Israeli forces.
“The occupation and its leaders who initiated this aggression must prepare to pay the price,” said the statement from the Gaza resistance factions’ joint operation room.
Last week, militants in Gaza fired several salvos of rockets toward southern Israel, and Israeli military responded with airstrikes following the death of a hunger-striking senior member of the Islamic Jihad in Israeli custody. The exchange of fire ended with a fragile ceasefire mediated by Egypt, the United Nations, and Qatar.
The airstrikes are similar to ones in 2022 in which Israel bombed places housing commanders of Islamic Jihad group, setting off a three-day blitz that saw the group loosing its two top commanders and other dozens of militants.
Israel says the raids in the West Bank are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians see the attacks as further entrenchment of Israel’s 56-year, open-ended occupation of lands they seek for a future independent state.
So far, 105 Palestinians, about half of them are militants or alleged attackers, were killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the start of 2023, according to an Associated Press tally.
Palestinian assailants carried out a pair of attacks on Friday, killing three people and wounding at least six as tensions soared following days of fighting at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, officials said. Earlier in the day, retaliatory Israeli airstrikes had hit Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, sparking fears of a broader conflict.
Israeli authorities said an Italian tourist was killed and five other Italian and British citizens were wounded when a car rammed into a group of tourists in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub.
Israeli security forces examine the scene of a shooting near the Israeli settlement of Hamra in the occupied West Bank, in the Jordan Valley, April 7, 2023.
Nasser Nasser/AP
In a separate incident, two British-Israeli women were shot to death near a settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was calling up all reserve forces in Israel’s border police, a paramilitary force usually deployed to suppress Palestinian unrest, “to confront the terror attacks.”
The additional border police would be activated Sunday and join other units that have recently been deployed in Jerusalem and Lod, a town in central Israel with a mixed Jewish and Palestinian population.
In a statement late Friday, the State Department said that the U.S. “strongly condemns today’s terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Tel Aviv. We extend our deepest condolences to the victims’ families and loved ones, and wish a full recovery to the injured.”
Friday’s attacks marked a further escalation in the region following violence this week at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site. Friday’s strikes in southern Lebanon came a day after militants fired nearly three dozen rockets from there at Israel, wounding two people and causing some property damage. The Israeli military said it targeted installations of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, in southern Lebanon and Gaza.
In the Tel Aviv car-ramming late Friday, the alleged attacker rammed his vehicle into a group of civilians near a popular seaside park, police said. Israel’s rescue service said a 30-year-old Italian man was killed, while five other British and Italian tourists — including a 74-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl — were receiving medical treatment for mild to moderate injuries.
Police said they shot and killed the driver of the car and identified him as a 45-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel from the village of Kafr Qassem.
The shooting in the West Bank meanwhile killed the two sisters, who were in their 20s, and seriously wounded their 45-year-old mother near an Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley, Israeli and British officials said. The family lived in the Efrat settlement, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, said Oded Revivi, the settlement’s mayor.
Medics said they dragged the unconscious women from their smashed car, which appeared to have been pushed off the road.
No groups claimed responsibility for either attack. But the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza praised both incidents as retaliation for Israeli raids earlier this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque — the third-holiest site in Islam. On Tuesday, police arrested and beat hundreds of Palestinians there, who responded by hurling rocks and firecrackers at officers.
The exchange of rocket and missile fire and the latest apparent attack on Israeli civilians came at a time of heightened religious fervor, as Jews celebrate Passover, Muslims are in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan and Christians begin Easter weekend. In 2021, an escalation also triggered by clashes at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound spilled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Associated Press correspondents in the area said several missiles fired by Israeli warplanes struck an open field in the town of Qalili near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh, close to Lebanon’s coastal southern city of Tyre, while others struck a bridge and power transformer in the nearby town of Maaliya and a farm on the outskirts of Rashidiyeh, killing several sheep. No human deaths were reported.
Lebanese civilians check a small bridge that was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Maaliya village, southern Lebanon, April 7, 2023.
Mohammad Zaatari/AP
Israeli strikes in Lebanon risk drawing Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia into the fighting, which could lead to war. The Iran-backed group, armed with thousands of rockets and missiles, holds sway over much of southern Lebanon and is viewed by Israel as a bitter foe.
The Israeli military was careful to note in its announcement about Friday’s attack that it was targeting only sites linked to Palestinian militants. In recent years, Hezbollah has stayed out of other flareups related to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which stands on a hilltop revered by Muslims and Jews.
Hamas issued a statement condemning the Israeli strikes, while Israel’s military said it had struck targets belonging to the militant group in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in response to the rocket attacks.
“The (Israel Defense Forces) will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization to operate from within Lebanon and holds the state of Lebanon responsible for every directed fire emanating from its territory,” it said in a statement.
In Washington, principal deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Israel had “legitimate security concerns” and “every right to defend themselves,” but he also urged calm, saying “any unilateral action that jeopardizes the status quo [around the al Aqsa Mosque] to us is unacceptable.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly appealed Friday for “all parties across the region to de-escalate tensions.” He condemned the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, and also criticized Israeli police for “violence” inside the Al-Aqsa mosque.
In a tweet early Friday morning, Lebanon’s national army said it had discovered a rocket launcher with unfired missiles in the south of the country, only about five miles from the border with northern Israel, and that work was underway to dismantle the device.
Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, April 7, 2023.
Fatima Shbair/AP
The head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, said he was in contact with Israeli and Lebanese authorities early Friday. The force, known as UNIFIL, said that both sides had said they do not want war.
In Jerusalem, before dawn prayers on Friday, violence erupted again at the hilltop compound as Israeli police stationed at one of the gates forcibly dispersed vast crowds of worshippers who chanted praise for Hamas while pushing their way into the limestone courtyard. Videos from the scene showed police beating large groups of Palestinian men with sticks until they stumbled backward, falling and knocking down vendors’ tables.
The current round of violence began Wednesday after Israeli police twice raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. That led Thursday to rocket fire from Gaza and, in a significant escalation, the rocket barrage from Lebanon.
Israeli police detain a Palestinian man at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound following clashes that erupted during the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jerusalem, April 5, 2023.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty
The Israeli military said the rocket fire on its northern and southern fronts was carried out by Palestinian militants in connection to this week’s violence at Al-Aqsa where Israeli police stormed into the building with tear gas and stun grenades to confront Palestinians barricaded inside on two straight days. The violent scenes from the mosque ratcheted up tensions across the region.
In a briefing with reporters, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army drew a clear connection between the Lebanese rocket fire and the recent unrest in Jerusalem.
“It’s a Palestinian-oriented event,” he said, adding that either the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant groups, which are based in Gaza but also operate in Lebanon, could be involved. But he said the army believed that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government were aware of what happened and also held responsibility.
The mosque — the third-holiest site in Islam — stands on a hilltop revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. The competing claims to the site have repeatedly spilled over into violence over the years.
No faction in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the salvo of rockets. A Lebanese security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the country’s security forces believed the rockets were launched by a Lebanon-based Palestinian militant group, not by Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the firing of rockets from Lebanon, adding that Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers were investigating and trying to find the perpetrators. Mikati said his government “categorically rejects any military escalation” and the use of Lebanese territories to stage acts that threaten stability.
Hezbollah has condemned the Israeli police raids in Jerusalem. Both Israel and Hezbollah have avoided an all-out conflict since a 34-day war in 2006 ended in a draw.
The current escalation comes against the backdrop of Netanyahu’s domestic problems. For the past three months, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been demonstrating against his plans to overhaul the country’s judicial system, claiming it will lead the country toward authoritarianism.
Key military units, including fighter pilots, have threatened to stop reporting for duty if the overhaul is passed, drawing a warning from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that Israel’s national security could be harmed by the divisive plan. Netanyahu said he was firing Gallant, but then backtracked as he put the overhaul on hold for several weeks. Critics could also accuse him of trying to use the crisis to divert attention from his domestic woes.
Netanyahu said that the domestic divisions had no impact on national security and that the country would remain united in the face of external threats.
Jerusalem — Israel said two people were killed in a suspected terror attack near a West Bank Israeli settlement Friday as it launched rare strikes in southern Lebanon and continued bombing targets in the Gaza Strip, marking a further escalation in the region following violence this week at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site. Friday’s strikes in southern Lebanon came a day after militants fired nearly three dozen rockets from there at Israel, wounding two people and causing some property damage. The Israeli military said it targeted installations of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, in southern Lebanon and Gaza.
With tension mounting, Israeli officials reported a suspected terror attack near the Israeli settlement of Hamra, in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s military said “a shooting attack was carried out on a vehicle” and troops were searching the area for suspects. Denis Polkov, a spokesman for Israel’s national emergency medical service, said two Israeli women were killed and a third was seriously injured.
The exchange of rocket and missile fire and the latest apparent attack on Israeli civilians came at a time of heightened religious fervor, as Jews celebrate Passover, Muslims are in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan and Christians begin Easter weekend. In 2021, an escalation also triggered by clashes at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound spilled over into an 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Lebanese civilians check a small bridge that was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Maaliya village, southern Lebanon, April 7, 2023.
Mohammad Zaatari/AP
Associated Press correspondents in the area said several missiles fired by Israeli warplanes struck an open field in the town of Qalili near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh, close to Lebanon’s coastal southern city of Tyre, while others struck a bridge and power transformer in the nearby town of Maaliya and a farm on the outskirts of Rashidiyeh, killing several sheep. No human deaths were reported.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon risk drawing Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia into the fighting, which could lead to war. The Iran-backed group, armed with thousands of rockets and missiles, holds sway over much of southern Lebanon and is viewed by Israel as a bitter foe.
The Israeli military was careful to note in its announcement about Friday’s attack that it was targeting only sites linked to Palestinian militants. In recent years, Hezbollah has stayed out of other flareups related to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which stands on a hilltop revered by Muslims and Jews.
Hamas issued a statement condemning the Israeli strikes, while Israel’s military said it had struck targets belonging to the militant group in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in response to the rocket attacks.
“The (Israel Defense Forces) will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization to operate from within Lebanon and holds the state of Lebanon responsible for every directed fire emanating from its territory,” it said in a statement.
In Washington, principal deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Israel had “legitimate security concerns” and “every right to defend themselves,” but he also urged calm, saying “any unilateral action that jeopardizes the status quo [around the al Aqsa Mosque] to us is unacceptable.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly appealed Friday for “all parties across the region to de-escalate tensions.” He condemned the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, and also criticized Israeli police for “violence” inside the Al-Aqsa mosque.
In a tweet early Friday morning, Lebanon’s national army said it had discovered a rocket launcher with unfired missiles in the south of the country, only about five miles from the border with northern Israel, and that work was underway to dismantle the device.
The head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, said he was in contact with Israeli and Lebanese authorities early Friday. The force, known as UNIFIL, said that both sides had said they do not want war.
In Jerusalem, before dawn prayers on Friday, violence erupted again at the hilltop compound as Israeli police stationed at one of the gates forcibly dispersed vast crowds of worshippers who chanted praise for Hamas while pushing their way into the limestone courtyard. Videos from the scene showed police beating large groups of Palestinian men with sticks until they stumbled backward, falling and knocking down vendors’ tables.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza resumed early Friday, after militants fired more rockets from the blockaded territory, setting off air raid sirens in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. The military said targets included the entry shaft to an underground network used for weapons manufacturing.
Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, April 7, 2023.
Fatima Shbair/AP
The current round of violence began Wednesday after Israeli police twice raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. That led Thursday to rocket fire from Gaza and, in a significant escalation, the rocket barrage from Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Security Cabinet for a three-hour meeting late Thursday. “Israel’s response, tonight and beyond, will extract a heavy price from our enemies,” he said in a statement after the meeting.
Almost immediately, Palestinian militants in Gaza began firing rockets into southern Israel, setting off air raid sirens across the region. Loud explosions could be heard in Gaza from the Israeli strikes, as outgoing rockets whooshed into the skies toward Israel. For now, Palestinian militants have fired only short-range rockets from Gaza, rather than the long-range projectiles that can reach as far as Tel Aviv and typically invite harsher Israeli retaliation.
Israeli police detain a Palestinian man at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound following clashes that erupted during the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jerusalem, April 5, 2023.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty
The Israeli military said the rocket fire on its northern and southern fronts was carried out by Palestinian militants in connection to this week’s violence at Al-Aqsa where Israeli police stormed into the building with tear gas and stun grenades to confront Palestinians barricaded inside on two straight days. The violent scenes from the mosque ratcheted up tensions across the region.
In a briefing with reporters, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army drew a clear connection between the Lebanese rocket fire and the recent unrest in Jerusalem.
“It’s a Palestinian-oriented event,” he said, adding that either the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant groups, which are based in Gaza but also operate in Lebanon, could be involved. But he said the army believed that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government were aware of what happened and also held responsibility.
The mosque — the third-holiest site in Islam — stands on a hilltop revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. The competing claims to the site have repeatedly spilled over into violence over the years.
No faction in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the salvo of rockets. A Lebanese security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the country’s security forces believed the rockets were launched by a Lebanon-based Palestinian militant group, not by Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the firing of rockets from Lebanon, adding that Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers were investigating and trying to find the perpetrators. Mikati said his government “categorically rejects any military escalation” and the use of Lebanese territories to stage acts that threaten stability.
Hezbollah has condemned the Israeli police raids in Jerusalem. Both Israel and Hezbollah have avoided an all-out conflict since a 34-day war in 2006 ended in a draw.
The current escalation comes against the backdrop of Netanyahu’s domestic problems. For the past three months, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been demonstrating against his plans to overhaul the country’s judicial system, claiming it will lead the country toward authoritarianism.
Key military units, including fighter pilots, have threatened to stop reporting for duty if the overhaul is passed, drawing a warning from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that Israel’s national security could be harmed by the divisive plan. Netanyahu said he was firing Gallant, but then backtracked as he put the overhaul on hold for several weeks. Critics could also accuse him of trying to use the crisis to divert attention from his domestic woes.
Netanyahu said that the domestic divisions had no impact on national security and that the country would remain united in the face of external threats.
A Palestinian man was killed and 13 were injured in an Israeli raid in Nablus early Monday, Palestinian health officials said, in what Israeli authorities said was an operation to arrest suspects in the fatal shooting of an Israeli soldier last year.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Amir Ihab Bustami, 21, “was shot by the Israeli occupation soldiers and killed at dawn today in Nablus.”
Six people were wounded by live bullets during the raid in Nablus and seven others were injured “as a result of the army’s pursuit of them,” the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The agency said one person was hospitalized, and that they had also handled 75 cases of tear gas inhalation.
The Israeli military said the overnight raid was in response to the killing of Ido Baruch in an attack near the settlement of Shavei Shomron in the occupied West Bank on October 11, 2022.
“[Israeli forces] apprehended the assailants Obkamel Guri and Asama Tuille, from Nablus, who carried out the shooting attack during which Staff Sergeant Ido Baruch was killed,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Monday. “The forces also apprehended three additional suspects who were with the assailants.”
The Israeli forces exchanged fire with the suspects and confiscated two rifles at an apartment in Nablus, the IDF said, adding that two of the suspects were injured during the raid.
Lion’s Den, a Palestinian militant group that emerged in Nablus last year, claimed responsibility for the killing of Baruch. The group put out a statement Monday saying it had lured Israeli soldiers into an ambush in Nablus and killed them, but there was no evidence to support that claim. The IDF said no Israeli injuries were reported in the raid.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli forces “surrounded one of the residential buildings” in Nablus and heavy gunfire and an explosion were heard.
Separately, the Israeli military launched airstrikes in Gaza, targeting “an underground complex” belonging to Hamas for manufacturing rockets, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement early Monday. The airstrikes came after a rocket was launched from Gaza into Israel on Saturday, which the IDF said was intercepted.
Hamas confirmed in a statement that one of its sites was hit in West Gaza on Monday. Israeli warplanes “launched about 10 air raids targeting a site of the resistance,” al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement early Monday, adding that there were no casualties.
Following the strikes, four rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel, according to a later statement by the IDF that said it struck Hamas military posts in response.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas authorities in Gaza on Sunday announced the discovery of over 60 tombs in an ancient burial site dating back to the Roman era.
Work crews have been excavating the site since it was discovered last January during preparations for an Egyptian-funded housing project.
Hiyam al-Bitar, a researcher from the Hamas-run Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, said a total of 63 graves have been identified and that a set of bones and artifacts from one tomb was dated back to the second century.
She said the ministry is working with a team of French experts to learn more about the site. On Sunday, workers sifted through the soil and removed piles of dirt in wheelbarrows.
Although the ancient cemetery is now blocked off from the public, construction on the housing project has continued and the site is surrounded by apartment buildings. Local media reported looting when the site was first discovered, with people using donkey-drawn carts to haul away items like a covered casket and inscribed bricks.
Gaza, a coastal enclave home to more than 2 million people, is known for its rich history stemming from its location on ancient trade routes between Egypt and the Levant. But Israeli occupation, a blockade, conflicts and rapid urban growth in the crowded, narrow territory are among the reasons most of Gaza’s archeological treasures have not been protected.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli aircraft struck several military sites in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, hours after Palestinian militants fired a missile into southern Israel in a move apparently linked to rising tension in the occupied West Bank, Israel said.
The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted a weapons manufacturing facility and an underground tunnel belonging to Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007. The military said more projectiles were fired over the border while warplanes were hitting the Gaza sites.
No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the Saturday evening rocket, which landed in an open area near the Gaza-Israel fence. The border has been quiet since August’s three-day blitz between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a powerful Gaza group that is smaller than the dominant Hamas.
Hamas and other factions have largely honored the unofficial understandings that have kept the situation in the impoverished territory calm in exchange for thousands of Israeli work permits. Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on Gaza to prevent Hamas from stocking up weapons.
“The strike overnight continues the progress to impede the force build-up” of Hamas, the Israeli army said.
Critics of the blockade say it is a form of collective punishment that harms Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
While Gaza remained quiet, tension has been boiling for months in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exerts limited self-rule in parts of the territory.
Israel carried out near daily raids that it says targets wanted Palestinians involved in planning or taking part in attacks, prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people.
The military says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks, but the Palestinians say they entrench Israel’s open-ended occupation, now in its 56th year. A recent wave of Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets killed an additional nine people.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting this year. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Turning a huge park in Gaza City into a sea of yellow flags, tens of thousands of Palestinians on Thursday commemorated the anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat — a rare public show of support for the Fatah faction in the heartland of its Islamist rival Hamas.
The rally passed without incident, though Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers have in the past blocked and violently dispersed demonstrations in solidarity with President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. The Palestinian parties have been bitterly divided between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip for 15 years.
Crowds marched to Gaza City’s Katiba park, waving the yellow flags of Fatah, which Arafat founded in the 1960s. They also raised photos of Abbas, Arafat’s successor.
Arafat died in 2004 at a hospital in France after two years of an Israeli siege on his West Bank headquarters. Palestinians accuse Israel of poisoning him but have offered no proof, adding to the mystery surrounding the death.
For Fatah, the ability to mobilize the masses serves as a referendum on its popularity in Hamas-run Gaza. In 2007, Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and seized the territory after a bloody week of street fighting.
The reputation of Hamas, which administers Gaza under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade and the threat of repeated destructive conflicts with Israel, has suffered among Palestinians in recent years. The group has hiked taxes on residents but struggled to provide even basic services. Four wars with Israel and the 15-year blockade have devastated Gaza’s economy.
In a recorded message played at the rally, Abbas called for Palestinian unity to ease the blockade. Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas from stockpiling arms. Critics view it as a form of collective punishment, confining the territory’s 2 million people to what Palestinians often refer to as the world’s largest open-air prison.
“We feel the suffering of our people under the oppressive siege,” Abbas said. “This pain and agony will not end unless the division, which took our cause backward, ends.”
Hamas does not easily grant permits for such Fatah demonstrations in its territory. In 2007, a few months after taking over Gaza, Hamas attacked Arafat’s anniversary rally and killed six Palestinians. In 2014, authorities prevented Fatah from holding another gathering.
But at the height of Egyptian efforts to reconcile the Palestinian factions and end the enduring political and geographical schism in 2017, Hamas allowed Fatah to hold an Arafat celebration.
Last month, officials from Hamas and Fatah held a new round of reconciliation talks in Algeria and signed an outline for an agreement that would pave the way for elections. But few are optimistic the factions can overcome their differences, as they have failed to implement past deals.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Two senior officials from the Palestinian militant Hamas group visited Syria’s capital on Wednesday for the first time since they were forced to leave the war-torn country a decade ago over backing armed opposition fighters.
The visit appears to be a first step toward reconciliation between Hamas and the Syrian government and follows a monthslong mediation by Iran and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group — both key backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Over the years, Tehran and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have maintained their relations with Hamas despite Assad’s rift with the Palestinian militants.
Before the rift, Hamas had long kept a political base in Syria, receiving Damascus’ support in its campaign against Israel. Hamas’ powerful leadership-in-exile remained in Syria — even after the group took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.
But when Syria tipped into civil war, Hamas broke with Assad and sided with the rebels fighting to oust him. The rebels are largely Sunni Muslims, like Hamas, and scenes of Sunni civilian deaths raised an outcry across the region against Assad, who belongs to the Alawites, a minority Shiite sect in Syria.
On Wednesday, Khalil al-Hayeh, a senior figure in Hamas’ political branch, and top Hamas official Osama Hamdan were among several officials representing different Palestinian factions who were received by Assad.
Al-Hayeh had regularly visited Beirut over the years, meeting with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah; their last meeting was in August.
After Wednesday’s meeting, al-Hayeh said Assad was “keen on Syria’s support to the Palestinian resistance” and called his visit a “glorious day.”
“God willing, we will turn the old page and look for the future,” al-Hayeh said, adding that Hamas is against any “Zionist or American aggression on Syria.”
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes around Syria over the past years, mainly targeting Iran-backed fighters.
Hamas’ re-establishing of a Damascus base would mark its rejoining the so-called Iran-led “axis of resistance” as Tehran works to gather allies at a time when talks with world powers over Iran’s nuclear program are stalled.
The move by Hamas also comes after Turkey restored relations with Israel and after some Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, normalized relations with Hamas’ archenemy Israel.
The pro-government Al-Watan daily says Damascus will be reconciling with the “resistance branch” of Hamas and not the Muslim Brotherhood faction — an apparent reference to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal who was once based in Damascus but is now in Qatar.
Protesters held banners in solidarity with victims of Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Khan Yunis, Gaza — Thousands of people in the besieged Gaza Strip have protested in solidarity with fellow Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem amid a wave of violence by Israeli forces.
The rallies on Friday, called by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, began from mosques in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza and Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, where the demonstrators carried banners that read: “Palestine brings us together, Jerusalem is ours, We will defend Jerusalem with our hands and souls.”
The protesters held banners of solidarity with the people of Jerusalem and pictures of young men killed by the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“The West Bank and Jerusalem are entering in a new phase that shows Israeli occupation that armed struggle is the choice of our people,” he said.
He said daily incursions by Israeli settlers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in the old city of Jerusalem, and other recent Israeli provocations at the site were only driving Palestinian resistance.
“Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque are the core of the conflict and for their sake our people rose up throughout their history,” he said.
“The West Bank is rising up again, confirming that the path towards liberation and sweeping the occupier is through the barrel of a gun.”
Israeli forces have been carrying out near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank in recent months, largely focused on the towns of Jenin and Nablus, where a new wave of Palestinian armed resistance is emerging.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year, at least 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including 51 Palestinians during Israel’s three-day assault on Gaza in August, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Tensions have also been high in occupied East Jerusalem since Saturday evening after Israeli police locked down the Shuafat camp on the pretext of searching for a Palestinian suspected of killing a female soldier.
On Wednesday, businesses went on strike and educational institutions closed in occupied East Jerusalem in solidarity with the besieged people in the Shuafat camp and with the Anata, Ras Khamis, Ras Shehadeh and Dahiyat al-Salam neighbourhoods, where the Israeli police have imposed strict restrictions on residents’ movements.
A woman participant in the protest holds a banner that reads ‘Al-Aqsa is for us, not for the darkness’ [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
In Khan Yunis, Abu Sufyan Muhammad, 60, told Al Jazeera he was protesting to show his support for the people of the occupied territories in light of the recent wave of violence.
“We will not be silent about the Israeli actions against us. We are one people and one suffering, and our protest today is an affirmation of our unity in the face of the occupation,” he said.
Muhammad called on all Arab and Islamic countries to intervene to stop repeated Israeli aggression.
“The situation has become unbearable. Enough of the silence and humiliation. The occupation does what it wants without accountability.”
