Jerusalem experienced a multi-missile attack from Hamas during the Yom Yerushalayim Day celebration on Monday.
Yom Yerushalayim celebrates the Jews taking Jerusalem back in the 1967 Six-Day War. It commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City, where the Temple Mount is located.
During the celebration, shocking videos that show children and women scrambling for cover as the air raid sirens go off have surfaced online.
Shocking footage out of Israel – children and their mothers scramble for shelter as rocket sirens go off.
In the last hour alone, more than a dozen rockets have been fired from Gaza, including at Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/IBMjVvHO0t
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) May 10, 2021
Reports of at least ten missiles have been confirmed to be launched from Gaza at Jerusalem. Seven of those missiles have been intercepted by the Iron Dome Defense system.
VIDEO: Hamas fires multiple rockets toward Jerusalem and central Israel.pic.twitter.com/9N9krg6GPP
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) May 10, 2021
Many different factors have been at play in Israel in recent weeks, including a canceled Palestinian Authority (PA) election. The PA was supposed to hold elections on May 22, but after it became clear to PA President Mahmoud Abbas that he would lose to Hamas for control, elections were canceled. Abbas blamed Israel, saying, “We have decided to postpone the election until the participation of our people in Jerusalem is guaranteed.”
“Since the elections were announced, divisions within the Fatah party had emerged, there were dozens of tickets to vote for, and Hamas was likely to do well. So Abbas pulled the plug, blaming Israel for his decision on the ground that it would not permit voting in Jerusalem,” Elliott Abrams, former Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy, wrote on April 30. “This is an old ruse, useful whenever Fatah leaders decide to call an election off.”
Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, reported: “The last elections, held in 2006 with international support and Israeli cooperation, saw Hamas win a landslide victory after campaigning as a scrappy underdog untainted by corruption. That sparked an internal crisis culminating in Hamas’ seizure of Gaza the following year, which confined Abbas’ authority to parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Hamas’ popularity has fallen in the years since, as conditions in Gaza have steadily deteriorated.”
