Hostilities are escalating between Israel and the Palestinians, with Hamas-linked militants firing more than 1,000 rockets into Israel since Monday night, and Israel responding with hundreds of airstrikes.
Gaza health officials say at least 35 Palestinians, including 10 children, have been killed in Gaza since the cross-border attacks began at sundown on Monday.
Five Israelis, including three women and a child, were killed by rocket fire Tuesday and early Wednesday, and dozens of people wounded.
The exhange of rocket attacks were preceded by hours of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, including dramatic confrontations at Jerusalem s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a sacred site to both Jews and Muslims.
But the roots are strong.
She and her husband, empty nesters with grown children of their own, may have to leave it all behind in August.
That s when Israel is set to forcibly evict them following a decades-long legal battle waged by ideological Jewish settlers against them and their neighbours.
The Dajanis are one of several Palestinian families facing imminent eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.Â
The families plight has ignited weeks of demonstrations and clashes in recent days between protesters and Israeli police.
It also highlights an array of discriminatory policies that rights groups say are aimed at pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem to preserve its Jewish majority.Â
2021/05/10 13:35 Samira Dajani holds a photo of her family in 1956 after they moved into their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem, Sunday, May 9,. Samira Dajani holds a photo of her family in 1956 after they moved into their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem, Sunday, May 9, 2021. The Dajanis are one of several Palestinian families facing imminent eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. The families plight has ignited weeks of demonstrations and clashes in recent days between protesters and Israeli police. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) Samira Dajani and her husband, Adel Budeiri, pose for a portrait in the garden of their home, where she has lived since childhood, in the Sheikh Jarra.
Palestinians fear loss of family homes as evictions loom
The families threatened with eviction have been living in their homes since the 1950s, when they were resettled there after fleeing the 1948 war. Author: Associated Press Updated: 4:27 AM CDT May 10, 2021
When Samira Dajani s family moved into their first real home in 1956 after years as refugees, her father planted trees in the garden, naming them for each of his six children.
Today, two towering pines named for Mousa and Daoud stand watch over the entrance to the garden where they all played as children. Pink bougainvillea climbs an iron archway on a path leading past almond, orange and lemon trees to their modest stone house.
What is behind the clashes in Jerusalem? 10/05/2021, 1:28 pm
Palestinians run from stun grenades fired by Israeli police officers during clashes at Damascus Gate just outside Jerusalem’s Old City (Oded Balilty/AP)
For weeks now, Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have clashed on a daily basis in and around Jerusalem’s Old City, home to major religious sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims and the emotional epicentre of the Middle East conflict.
Jerusalem has been the scene of violent confrontations between Jews and Arabs for 100 years and remains one of the most bitterly contested cities on earth.
The latest clashes began a month ago with an Israeli move to block some Palestinian gatherings at the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, already a time of heightened religious sensitivities.