Tension on the streets as religious festivals coincide
Jerusalem has been calm today, but you can feel the tensions on the streets. Israeli security officials have bolstered numbers, especially in the Old City.
This weekend sees the convergence of Ramadan, Passover and Easter – the internal intelligence agencies had marked it as being a potential flashpoint.
The salvo of missiles from southern Lebanon into northern Israel yesterday afternoon came as a surprise. For a few hours, it had the potential to be a major escalation.
Not since 2006 has such an attack happened on Israel but the airstrikes overnight were carefully calibrated to avoid further violence.
Israeli forces hit the launch sites and in areas not controlled by Hezbollah.
Likewise, the simultaneous strikes in Gaza attacked known Hamas military posts but didn’t cause casualties.
Having said that, it wouldn’t take much to spark more violence. In previous years, violence has often escalated in the second half of Ramadan.
Jews, and other religions, are prevented from entering Al Aqsa between Friday and Sunday. When the compound opens up again, it might be a moment for more clashes.
The killing of two young British sisters in the West Bank is the latest tragedy in a new trend of Palestinian militant violence.
Cars with Israeli number plates have been increasingly targeted, sometimes fatally, as was the case in this incident.
Hamas, and Gaza, is a known quantity – you can read the signs and it often follows a pattern.
What is harder to predict are acts by unaffiliated Palestinians acting alone and how that might light the flame under this tinderbox.
