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Israel Under Attack Again, But Continues To Celebrate Sukkot Holiday
While Israel celebrates the biblical Sukkot holiday (Feast of the Tabernacles), Palestinian violence across the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem continues.
On Tuesday evening, the Iron Dome missile shield intercepted a rocket in the skies above the port city of Ashdod, 40 kilometers north of Gaza, Israel radio Reshet Beth reported.
At 10.45 PM, sirens went off in southern Israel, and citizens ran to their private security rooms or public bomb-shelters. Less than a minute later, the Iron Dome shot down a missile launched by the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, a Salafist terror group that is affiliated with Islamic State. The interception was caught on video.
The attack on Ashdod came a week after a rocket attack on the coastal city of Ashqelon, ten kilometers from Gaza, and two days after the north of Israel was attacked with missiles from Syrian territory.
The Israeli air force retaliated and bombed four targets in Gaza overnight. Two of the targets were Hamas property, Palestinians in Gaza reported.
IDF spokesman Peter Lerner later issued a statement that said Hamas was responsible for the rocket fire on Ashdod.
“This evening, the third day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a rocket was fired at southern Israel sending the residents of Ashdod as well as several surrounding communities to nearby bomb-shelters. Hamas is responsible and will be held accountable for every attack emanating from the Gaza Strip. The IDF will continue defending all Israelis who are repeatedly attacked by such blatant acts of aggression,” Lerner said.
In Judea and Samaria (West Bank), scores of Palestinian Arabs clashed with Israeli soldiers in multiple locations. Three hundred Arabs marched to the Jewish village of Beth El in the Ramallah area and approached an IDF checkpoint while firing in the air and throwing stones at Israeli vehicles and IDF soldiers.
The soldiers responded with rubber bullets, stun grenades, low-impact Ruger rifle rounds and skunk spray for crowd control, the Jerusalem Post reported.
In the region of the Palestinian city of Tulkarm and near Rachel’s tomb in Bethlehem, scores of Arabs attacked IDF soldiers and Border Police with rocks and firebombs. Several Arabs were wounded when security forces responded with rubber bullets.
In Jerusalem, thousands of police officers tried to prevent a repeat of the violence the city had witnessed during the first day of Sukkot when Muslims again used the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a base for attacks on Israeli visitors and police on the Temple Mount.
Several Jews, including children who were on their way to prayer services at the Western Wall, were attacked by Arab mobs on Monday. In video footage of one of these attacks, a Muslim mob can be seen attacking a religious Jewish man and kicking a toddler while chanting “Allah Hu Akhbar.”
On Tuesday, police restricted the number of Muslims allowed to enter the Temple Mount and continued its crackdown on violent Arabs in Jerusalem. Thousands of policemen were deployed in the area of the Old City of Jerusalem to ensure Sukkot celebrations at the Western Wall and in the Jewish Quarter could take place without disruptions.
The wave of violence that started on the day preceding Rosh Hashanah two weeks ago left the Jewish residents of Jerusalem apparently unfazed.
When this reporter visited the area on Tuesday, tens of thousands of Jews were strolling in the streets of downtown Jerusalem and the Old City. Restaurants near the Mamilla Mall were packed with tourists and residents who were dining outside in Sukkot, the traditional booths that are used to commemorate the exodus from Egypt and the forty years spent wandering through the desert.
In the Jewish quarter of the Old City, scores of ultra-orthodox Jews were dancing in the streets and in the reconstructed Hurva Synagogue that had been destroyed by Arabs after the Jordanian conquest of Jerusalem during the War of Independence in 1948.
Today, some 100,000 Jewish pilgrims and tourists gathered at the Western Wall for the ‘Birkat Kohanim’ festive ceremony during the morning prayer service. Birkat Kohanim (priestly blessing) is performed every day during morning prayers by Jews descended from Aharon and his sons (Kohanim means priests). During Passover and Sukkot, the ceremony is performed by hundreds of Kohanim and draws thousands of spectators.
Hundreds of police officers were watching the ceremony from rooftops nearby, and a police helicopter hovered over the Temple Mount to monitor suspected movements. They had been working since the early hours of Wednesday and succeeded in securing the Old City and preventing disturbances during the ceremony.
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/israel-under-attack-again-but-continues-to-celebrate-sukkot-holiday/
