Hamas terrorist group launched rockets at Jerusalem on Israeli national holiday

The city of Jerusalem, Israel was attacked Monday by the militant Palestinian group Hamas on the day of Yom Yerushalayim – a holiday celebrating the reunification of Israel after the Six-Day War of 1967.

Hamas, a radical Islamist group, launched dozens of rockets from Gaza to Jerusalem and Central Israel. Footage shows children and parents scrambling as rocket sirens go off.

A fire started on the Temple Mount next to Al Aqsa Mosque. The mosque is in the same area as the Dome of the Rock – an ancient shrine in Old City.

A Palestinian Authority election was recently canceled in Israel. The election was scheduled for May 22 but PA President Mahmoud Abbas was likely to lose to Hamas and decided to blame Israel in the postponement decision. “We have decided to postpone the election until the participation of our people in Jerusalem is guaranteed,” Abbas said.

“Since the elections were announced, divisions within the Fatah party had emerged, there were dozens of tickets to vote for, and Hamas was likely to do well. So Abbas pulled the plug, blaming Israel for his decision on the ground that it would not permit voting in Jerusalem,” Deputy National Security Adviser for Global Democracy Strategy Elliot Adams said in April. “This is an old ruse, useful whenever Fatah leaders decide to call an election off.”

Additionally, Sheik Jarrah has been a major point of conflict in recent weeks. The neighborhood, known as, “Shimon Hatzaddik”, was conquered by the Arab Legion in 1948 after being settled as a Jewish neighborhood in 1891. Israel took the neighborhood over in 1967 after a committee purchased the land. Clashes broke out in Sheik Jarrah last Friday regarding a land dispute and 17 police officers were injured, as well as 200 Palestinians.

Hamas issued an ultimatum to Israel Monday to remove law enforcement from Jerusalem, threatening to fire rockets, which they then fired on Monday.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration is “deeply concerned about the rocket attacks” and that “they need to stop immediately.” Far-left Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., was accused of “stoking tensions” by Israel Ambassador to the U.S. Gilad Erdan.

“Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib maybe you should open your eyes to the whole picture? Islam’s 3rd holiest site is being used to stockpile Molotov cocktails and rocks that are being lobbed at the police and at Jewish worshippers praying at the Western Wall, below the Temple Mount,” Erdan tweeted.

Source: The Federalist