By ALEXANDRA VARDI
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to restore security “on all fronts” after reinstated his Defence Minister, whose sacking he announced last month.
Heavy clashes, shootings, rocket strikes and a car-ramming attack have marred a period when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coincides with the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter.
The latest casualties were a Palestinian teenager and a British-Israeli mother who succumbed on Monday to injuries from a West Bank gun attack last week that killed her two daughters.
The day after Israeli police on Wednesday stormed the prayer hall of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque – Islam’s third-holiest site – more than 30 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel, which the Israeli army said most likely were by the Palestinian armed movement Hamas.
Israel then bombarded the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, targeting “terror infrastructures” it said belonged to Hamas.
“We will not allow the terrorist Hamas to establish itself in Lebanon”, by acting on “all fronts”, Mr Netanyahu said overnight on Monday.
Israeli-Palestinian violence had already intensified since Mr Netanyahu’s new government took power in December, a coalition with extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.
The latest surge came late last month after he announced a “pause” for dialogue on judicial reform legislation, which split the nation and caused divisions in his government.
Among the political casualties was Yoav Gallant, whom the Prime Minister dismissed on March 26 after he called for a halt to the legislative process, citing national security concerns and threats by reserve military personnel not to report for duty.
On Monday Mr Netanyahu said he and Mr Gallant had “difficult disputes” but he had decided to put them in the past.
“Gallant remains in his post and we will continue to work together for the safety of the citizens of Israel,” he said.
In Tel Aviv, several hundred protesters took to the streets to denounce the government and condemn the Prime Minister.
Also on Monday, several government ministers joined hundreds of Israelis protesters who marched in the north of the West Bank, pushing for state approval of an Israeli settler outpost.