A rocket fired from the Palestinian territory of Gaza was intercepted on Wednesday (February 1st) by the Israeli air defense system, according to a military statement. This incident comes a few hours after the visit of the American Secretary of State. Antony Blinken notably urged Israelis and Palestinians to ease tensions.
The shooting was not immediately claimed by armed groups in the Gaza Strip, a territory of 2.3 million inhabitants under Israeli blockade since 2007. “I request an urgent cabinet meeting [de sécurité] tonight to consider ways to respond to the rocket fire from Gaza”reacted in a press release the Minister of National Security and figure of the extreme right in Israel, Itamar Ben Gvir.
A resurgence of violence
The last few days have seen renewed violence between the two camps. An Israeli raid, deadliest in years, caused the death of ten people on January 26, combatants and civilians, in the Jenin refugee camp (north of the occupied West Bank). It was followed on Friday by rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.
On the same day, seven people died in a Palestinian attack near a synagogue in East Jerusalem, an area occupied and annexed by Israel. Separately, a Palestinian on Saturday wounded two Israelis, a father and his son, also in East Jerusalem, before being injured and arrested. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli guards killed a Palestinian on Sunday, while Israeli forces killed a Palestinian on Monday.