25 April 2022; MEMO: A rocket launched from Lebanon on Monday struck harmlessly in Israel, which responded with artillery fire, in an apparent spill-over of Palestinian-Israeli confrontations at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, Reuters reports.
Flare-ups along the Israeli-Lebanese border are rare and Israel's chief military spokesman, Brigadier-General Ran Kochav, estimated that Palestinian groups in Lebanon fired the rocket, which he said hit open ground in northern Israel.
"We believe … this is linked to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the riots on the Temple Mount," Kochav said on Israel's Kan Radio.
He was referring to confrontations over the past two weeks between Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site. Jews believe the area was once the site of two ancient temples.
On Twitter, the Israeli military said it fired dozens of shells at "open spaces in south Lebanon, near the launch area, and also at an infrastructure target", which it did not identify.
Small Palestinian factions in Lebanon have fired sporadically on Israel in the past.
However, the border has been largely quiet since Israel's war on Lebanon in 2006.
Aroldo Lazaro, head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), has urged "calm and restraint", the mission said on Twitter.
At least 57 Palestinians were injured on Friday when Israeli occupation forces stormed the Al-Aqsa compound, medics said. Hundreds of Palestinians were rounded up and arrested leading to fears that the region may witness a repeat of last year's war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Palestinians accuse Israel of restricting Muslim worship at Al-Aqsa, while not doing enough to enforce a long-standing ban on Jewish prayer at the compound.
Israel denies this.
Adverts seen online ahead of last week's Passover holiday called on Jews to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque and offer animal sacrifices. "Join the attempts to make the Passover sacrifice and receive a financial reward!" the poster says.
"Arrested? NIS 400. Arrested with a goat/lamb? NIS 800. Managed to sacrifice? NIS 10,000," the post from a social media account by a Jewish group calling itself Returning to the Mount read.
