Rising attacks in religiously ‘mixed’ Israel towns amid Gaza push
Al JazeeraViolent confrontations between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jewish Israelis have resumed in several cities inside Israel as the Israeli military continued air raids on the besieged Gaza Strip and Hamas fired rockets into Israel for a third day on Wednesday. The crisis, which started with Israeli efforts to displace Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem, has sparked intra-communal tensions within Israel, with some Palestinian citizens staging protests in recent days. Israel’s Channel 13 also quoted a senior police officer as saying Palestinian citizens of Israel were suspected of attacking and seriously wounding a Jewish man in Acre, also in the country’s north. “The Torah of Israel grants no licence for taking the law into one’s hands and acting violently.” Palestinian citizens of Israel say the violence of the past two days was not directed at Jews, but rather at religious nationalists with close ties to the Jewish settlement movement who have moved into mixed areas in recent years, pushing Palestinian residents out.