Palestinian Premier Warns of ‘Inflammatory’ Jerusalem Tension – By Yousef Gamal El-Din and Fadwa Hodali (Bloomberg) / May 28 2021
(Bloomberg) — The cease-fire in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip may be holding but the standoff between Israel and the Palestinians in the contested city of Jerusalem remains tense, the Palestinian Prime Minister said, urging the international community to help end a vacuum in peacemaking.
“The problem is that while we do have a cease-fire in Gaza the situation in Jerusalem continues to be very inflammatory,” Mohammed Shtayyeh said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “The incursions in the Al Aqsa mosque continue as well as the threats of the ethnic cleansing of our people in Sheikh Jarrah and now the issue is taken to Silwan.”
This month’s 11-day war, the fourth major conflict between Gaza and Israel, erupted following weeks of tensions in Jerusalem over Israeli restrictions around the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam, and efforts to evict Palestinians from longtime homes in a part of the city they want as capital of a future state.
Hamas rocket fire damaged homes and vehicles in the Jewish state while Israel launched devastating air strikes that flattened buildings in the tiny coastal enclave. The fighting killed more than 250 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them civilians, and left 13 dead in Israel.
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