Pro-Palestine protesters clashed with Israeli military forces on Tuesday as widespread demonstrations in the city turned violent.
As tear gas was fired and missiles were launched, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has rejected President Joe Biden’s calls for a ceasefire, said Palestinian militants have been dealt “unexpected blows” as Israeli bombardments continue.
“I have no doubt that we set them back many years,” Netanyahu said. “I am sure that all our enemies around us see the price we have levied for the aggression against us, and I am sure they will learn the lesson.”
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On Tuesday, pro-Palestine protesters threw rocks and scaled the cement wall lining the frontier in the West Bank, drawing tear gas from Israeli forces. Two Israeli soldiers were injured by gunfire, and three pro-Palestine protesters were shot dead, according to the Times of Israel.
In a separate incident near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, approximately a half-mile from the al Aqsa Mosque (the site of a May 10 clash that left at least 305 Palestinians and 21 Israeli officers injured), tear gas was fired, and at least eight demonstrators were arrested, Israel Hayom reported.
The recent violence comes ahead of Israel’s planned evictions of several Palestinians living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. Palestinians view east Jerusalem as their capital, while Israel has claimed the entire city as its own.
Both sides have refused to back down, with Netanyahu maintaining that his forces attack only legitimate military targets and Hamas militants, saying Israel “will [eventually] have to submit to the conditions set by [Palestinian] resistance groups.”
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“The fact that the Zionist regime’s armed forces target Palestinian infrastructure, roads, and houses shows its real inability to confront the resistance’s attacks,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al Qunu said Monday, according to Iranian state media.
