Israel as a country has always been a good old friend to India, supporting India in all of its endeavours, be it the Pokhran nuclear test, Kashmir issue, providing equipment support or the ongoing COVID pandemic. Even two days back we had a C-17 loading in from Israel with all the essential medical equipment.
The location of Israel has always kept it in conflict with neighbouring regions due to lack of clash of interest and even because of the effort to prove religious supremacy by the neighbours. The region which has currently conflicted is Jerusalem, so let’s understand the current escalations and what is in there for India.
History of the dispute:
A brief timeline of the disputed Jerusalem :
| 957 BC | Jews built the first temple. |
| 352 BC | Jews built the second temple. |
| 561 BC | Christians built the church of St.Mary at Justinian |
| 691AD | Arab’s built dome on the rocks of the first temple |
| 705AD | Arab’s built Al Aqsa Mosque on top of the second temple and the church. |
The reason for Jerusalem being so much in conflict :
Jerusalem has always been the epicentre of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The original 1947 UN Partition Plan, proposed Jerusalem to be an international city, but the Israelis captured the western half of the city in the first Arab Israel war of 1948, and Jordan took control of the eastern part, including the Old City that houses Haram esh-Sharif where the Al-Aqsa mosque is located. One side of the compound is called Temple Mount by the Jews, and is the Wailing Wall (Western Wall), and is the second holiest site of Jews.
East-Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-day war and was annexed later after. There have been settlements of Jews in the city and they are Israeli citizens, Palestinians are given conditional residency here and the Palestinians from the Eastern part have the rights to apply for Israeli citizenship. Very few Palestinians have done so.
Israel claims the whole of the city as its “Unified city capital” which has not been accepted by most of the international communities.
Reasons for current escalation :
The escalation has been sparked since the start of Ramzan in mid-April with the Israeli forces setting up barricades at the Damascus Gate of the Old City, and the reason as quoted by Israeli police was to control mass gatherings, they had also requested that only those who got vaccinated should go to the Al-Aqsa mosque for the prayers. The barricading by Israeli forces escalated the situation, which was soon removed.
Fear-mongering was done in the Palestinians that there is going to be a threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah and this happened during the last week of Ramzan, escalating the tensions further.
A similar pattern has been observed every year after the end of Ramazan when the situations get escalated and instances of stone-pelting occur.
The Clash
Finally, the clashes erupted on 7 May night in Jerusalem between the Israeli police and pro – Palestine protesters, in which over a dozen police personnel were injured along with hundreds of protesters.
Conflict of Al-Aqsa mosque 
Israeli police forces charging over
Israel also celebrates Jerusalem day on 10 May, which marks the recapture of Jerusalem by the Israeli forces and there are groups of Israelis, namely the Zionists who take a march out on this day. The Israeli authorities had permitted the march to the groups through the Arab quarter of the Old City, but it was rerouted looking at the conflicts happening. Ahead of the march on May 10, instances of stone-pelting began and few of the pelters had taken shelter in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Israeli armed forces stormed in the mosque with non-lethal weapons to evict the protesters who had camped with stones and Molotov cocktail.
The Hamas group has warned Israel that they would be attacking Israel if forces don’t come down the Al-Aqsa mosque and this warning followed by rocket attacks all over Israel with red alert sirens raising all over the country. Every three minutes there is a rocket fired on Israel by the Hamas group, and they are mostly targetting on the civilian army as claimed by the Israeli defence forces.
Israeli Air Force took up the task and targetted airstrikes are going on the launch pads, tunnels, hideouts and rocket sites of the Hamas group, the force also issued a warning to the citizens of Gaza asking them to keep away from weaponry and the launch site of the Hamas
In the last 38 hours, more than 1050 rockets have been fired and approximately all of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System and the operation has been named, “Operation Guardian of the wall”
Israel has claimed that it has been its largest strike since the year 2014 and has killed key opponents including Hassan Kaogi, head of the Hamas military intelligence security, and the commander of the Hamas anti-tank missile unit, Iyad Fathi Faik Sharir, others who have been neutralised includes Islamic Jihad commander, Samah Abed al-Mamluk & other senior members of his unit.
What’s in for India?
India lost one of its citizen, Mrs Soumya Santhosh in the deadly attack by the Hamas rockets.
The Ministry of External Affairs is currently observing the situation and has expressed concerns for the safety of its citizen and has urged restraint from both sides.
Thank you for the information you shared.