Palestinian protests began on 6 May in Sheikh Jarrah, but clashes soon spread to the
al-Aqsa Mosque,
Lod, other
Arab localities in Israel, and the West Bank. Israeli police subsequently engaged in extensive spraying of Sheikh Jarrah's Palestinian homes, shops, restaurants, public spaces and cultural institutions with
Skunk, a lasting stench used to contain protests.
Al-Aqsa Mosque compound , the site of some of the clashes On 7 May, large numbers of police were deployed on the Temple Mount as around 70,000 worshippers attended the
final Friday prayers of Ramadan at al-Aqsa.The Israeli police said that some protestors had thrown stones and fireworks at them; however, it was unclear what sparked the violence. Police officers fired stun grenades into the mosque compound and into a field clinic. A mosque spokesman stated the clashes broke out after Israeli police attempted to evacuate the compound, where many Palestinians sleep over in Ramadan, adding that the evacuation was intended to allow access to Israelis. Palestinians threw rocks, firecrackers, and heavy objects, while Israeli police fired stun grenades,
tear gas, and
rubber bullets at worshippers. The storming came ahead of a
Jerusalem Day flag march by Jewish nationalists through the
Old City. More than 600 Palestinians were injured, more than 400 of whom were hospitalised. Militants in Gaza fired rockets into Israel the following night. Palestinian crowds threw stones, lit fires, and chanted "Strike Tel Aviv" and "In spirit and in blood, we will redeem al-Aqsa", which
The Times of Israel described as in support of
Hamas. The
Israel Police, wearing
riot gear and some on horseback, used
stun grenades and water cannons. Also on 10 May, a video showing a tree burning near al-Aqsa began to circulate on social media. Below in the Western plaza, a crowd of Jewish Israelis was singing and dancing in celebration of Jerusalem Day. Yair Wallach accused them of singing "genocidal songs of vengeance." The crowd cheered the flames with words from a song from
Judges 16:28 in which
Samson cries out before he tears down the pillars in Gaza, "O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!" Witnesses differed as to whether the fire was caused by an Israeli police stun grenade or by fireworks thrown by Palestinian protesters. Although the fire happened just 10 meters away from al-Aqsa, there was no damage to the mosque. As a result, 11 Palestinians were killed in the clashes. A Palestinian man who attempted to stab a soldier was shot, but survived; no Israeli soldiers were wounded in the incident. More than 100 Palestinians were injured. There have been daily demonstrations since the escalation in Gaza. As of 16 May, a total of 13 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank in clashes with Israeli troops by 14 May. On 17 May, three Palestinian demonstrators were killed in clashes with the IDF. According to
Al Arabiya, Fatah has backed a call for a general strike on 18 May in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Palestinians in Israel have been asked to take part. In an unusual display of unity by "Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20% of its population, and those in the territories Israel seized in 1967" the strike went ahead and "shops were shuttered across cities in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and in villages and towns inside Israel". During the day of protests and strikes, a Palestinian man was killed and more than 70 wounded in clashes near Ramallah and two Israeli soldiers were injured in a shooting attack.
Arab communities in Israel During the evening and night of 10 May, Arab rioters in Lod threw stones and
firebombs at Jewish homes, a school, and a synagogue, later attacking a hospital. Shots were fired at the rioters, killing one and wounding two; a Jewish suspect in the shooting was arrested. Widespread protests and riots intensified across Israel, particularly in
cities with large Arab populations. In Lod, Arab rioters threw rocks and firebombs at Jewish apartments, set fires, tore down street signs, set five synagogues on fire, and attacked a school, a pre-army military academy, and city hall. They also raised Palestinian and Hamas flags and called to "liberate Palestine." A Jewish man, Yigal Yehoshua, was critically wounded after being struck in the head by a brick and died six days later. The violence led to some Jewish residents being evacuated from their homes by police. Armed Jewish residents killed one Arab man, Musa Hassuna, and wounded two others. Police later accepted Hassuna's shooting as an act of self-defense amid the riots. A Muslim cemetery was also vandalized. In
Acre, the Effendi hotel was torched by Arab rioters, injuring several guests. One of them,
Avi Har-Even, a former head of the
Israel Space Agency, suffered burns and smoke inhalation, and died on 6 June. In the nearby city of
Ramle, Jewish rioters threw rocks at passing vehicles. On 11 May, Mayor of Lod Yair Revivio urged
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to deploy the
Israel Border Police to the city, stating that the municipality had "completely lost control" and warning that the country was on the brink of "civil war". Netanyahu declared a
state of emergency in Lod on 11 May, marking the first time since 1966 that Israel has used emergency powers over an Arab community. Border Police forces were deployed to the city. A nighttime curfew was declared and entry to the city was prohibited for non-resident civilians.
Minister of Public Security Amir Ohana announced the implementation of emergency orders. In
Bat Yam, Jewish extremists attacked Arab stores and beat pedestrians. An Arab motorist was pulled from his car and severely beaten in the street. The incident was caught live by an Israeli news crew. An Israeli soldier was severely beaten in Jaffa and hospitalized for a skull fracture and cerebral hemorrhage, a Jewish paramedic and another Jewish man were shot in separate incidents in Lod, a police officer was shot in Ramla, Israeli journalists were attacked by far-right rioters in Tel Aviv, and a Jewish family that mistakenly drove into
Umm al-Fahm was attacked by an Arab mob before being rescued by other local residents and police. Israel Border Police forces were deployed throughout the country to quell the unrest, and 10 Border Police reserve companies were called up. In an address to police in Lod, Prime Minister Netanyahu told them not to worry about future commissions of inquiry and investigations into their enforcement during the riots, reminding them of the way the police had suppressed the
Palestinian Land Day riots of 1976. By 17 May, the rioting had mostly died down. Numerous employers threatened to fire Arab workers who participated in the strike. The management of
Rambam Hospital in Haifa sent letters to their Arab employees warning against participating in the strike, and the
Ministry of Education came under heavy criticism from teachers throughout Israel after it sent requests to the principals of schools in Arab towns asking for a list of teachers who participated in the strike. There were some instances of employees who participated in the strike being unlawfully dismissed without a prior hearing as required under Israeli law. The Israeli telecommunications company
Cellcom paused work for an hour as an act in support of coexistence. The move led to calls for a boycott of Cellcom among Israeli right-wingers who accused it of showing solidarity with the strike, and several Jewish settlement councils and right-wing organizations cut ties with it. Cellcom's stock subsequently dropped by two percent. arrest men accused of rioting in the
Negev Throughout the riots, Arab rioters set 10 synagogues and 112 Jewish homes on fire, looted 386 Jewish homes and damaged another 673, and set 849 Jewish cars on fire. There were also 5,018 recorded instances of stone-throwing against Jews. By contrast, Jewish rioters damaged 13 Arab homes and set 13 Arab cars on fire, and there were 41 recorded instances of stone-throwing against Arabs. One Arab home was set on fire by Arab rioters who mistook it for a Jewish home. No mosques were set on fire and no Arab homes were reported looted during the unrest. By 19 May, 1,319 people had been arrested for participating in the riots, of whom 159 were Jewish, and 170 people had been criminally charged over the riots, of whom 155 were Arab and 15 Jewish. On 23 May, it was reported that 10% of those arrested over the riots were Jews, with the vast majority of those arrested being Arabs. On 24 May, the police launched a sweeping operation to arrest rioters called Operation Law and Order, deploying thousands of police officers to carry out mass arrests of suspected rioters. By 25 May, over 1,550 people had been arrested. On 3 June, the police announced the completion of arrests. Of the 2,142 arrested, 91% were Arab. As of May 2022, around 90% of 600 people indicted over the rioting were Arabs. Seven men, five Lod residents and two West Bank Palestinians who had been in Israel illegally, were indicted on murder, terrorism, and racism charges over the death of Yigal Yehoshua. Another seven suspects were indicted for arson and rioting over the burning of the Effendi hotel, but none were charged with homicide over the subsequent death of Avi Har-Even, as the fire's short duration and limited area within the hotel affected made it difficult for prosecutors to connect it to Har-Even's death. Three Jews were indicted for attempted terrorist murder over the beating of an Arab man in Bat Yam. According to
Amnesty International, most of the arrests of Israeli-Arabs were for "insulting or assaulting a police officer" or "taking part in an illegal gathering" while right-wing Jewish extremists were mainly able to organize freely. The organization claimed that a "catalogue of violations" was committed by Israeli police against Palestinians in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem. "On at least two occasions in Haifa and Nazareth, witness accounts and verified videos showed police attacking groups of unarmed protesters without provocation", Amnesty reported.
Gaza Hamas delivered an ultimatum to Israel to remove all its police and military personnel from both the Haram al Sharif mosque site and Sheikh Jarrah by 10 May 6 p.m. If it failed to do so, they announced that the combined militias of the Gaza Strip ("joint operations room") would strike Israel. Minutes after the deadline passed, Hamas fired more than 150 rockets into Israel from Gaza. The
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that seven rockets were fired toward Jerusalem and
Beit Shemesh and that one was intercepted. An anti-tank missile was also fired at an Israeli civilian vehicle, injuring the driver. Israel launched air strikes in the Gaza Strip on the same day. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad called the ensuing conflict the "Sword of Jerusalem Battle" (). The following day, the IDF officially dubbed the campaign in the Gaza Strip "Operation Guardian of the Walls." On 11 May, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched hundreds of rockets at
Ashdod and
Ashkelon, killing two people and wounding more than 90 others. A third Israeli woman from
Rishon LeZion was also killed, while two more civilians from
Dahmash were killed by a rocket attack. On 11 May, the 13-story residential Hanadi Tower in Gaza collapsed after being hit by an Israeli airstrike. The tower housed a mix of residential apartments and commercial offices. IDF said the building contained offices used by Hamas, and said it gave "advance warning to civilians in the building and provided sufficient time for them to evacuate the site"; In addition, an Israeli state-owned
oil pipeline was hit by a rocket. , 12 May On 12 May, the
Israeli Air Force destroyed dozens of police and security installations along the Gaza Strip; Hamas said its police headquarters were among the targets destroyed. Over 850 rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel on 12 May. According to the IDF, at least 200 rockets launched by Hamas failed to reach Israel, and fell inside the Gaza Strip. Hamas also struck an Israeli military jeep near the Gaza border with an anti-tank missile. An Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded in the attack. On 13 May, Israeli forces and militant groups in Gaza continued to exchange artillery fire and airstrikes. Hamas attempted to deploy
suicide drones against Israeli targets, with an Israeli F-16 engaging and shooting down one such drone. The
Iron Dome intercepted many of the rockets fired at Israel. A series of Israeli strikes targeted the headquarters of Hamas' internal security forces, its central bank, and the home of a senior Hamas commander. On 14 May, Israel Defense Forces claimed to have troops on the ground and in the air attacking the Gaza Strip, although this claim was later retracted and followed with an apology for misleading the press. Israeli troops were reportedly told that they would be sent into Gaza and ground forces were reportedly positioned along the border as though they were preparing to launch an invasion. That same day, the Israeli Air Force launched a massive bombardment of
Hamas' extensive underground tunnel network, which was known as "the metro", as well as above-ground positions, reportedly inflicting heavy casualties. It was suspected that the reports of an Israeli ground invasion had been a deliberate ruse to lure Hamas operatives into the tunnels and prepared positions above ground to confront Israeli ground forces so that large numbers could then be killed by airstrikes. According to an Israeli official, the attacks killed hundreds of Hamas personnel, and in addition, 20 Hamas commanders were assassinated and most of its rocket production capabilities were destroyed. However, the estimated Hamas death toll was revised to dozens, as information came out that senior Hamas commanders had doubted that the ruse was genuine and only a few dozen Hamas fighters took positions in the tunnels. In total, 160 Israeli Air Force aircraft fired 450 missiles at 150 targets, with the attacks lasting about 40 minutes. Also on 14 May, a Hamas drone was downed by Israeli air defense forces. , 15 May On 15 May the IDF
destroyed the al-Jalaa Building in Gaza, which housed the Al Jazeera Media Network and Associated Press journalists, and a number of other press offices and apartments. The building was hit by three missiles, approximately an hour after Israeli forces called the building's owner, warning of the attack and advising all occupants to evacuate. The press agencies demanded an explanation; the IDF said at the time that the building housed assets of Hamas military intelligence. On 8 June, Israel stated that a Hamas electronic warfare unit developing a system to jam the Iron Dome was based in the building. AP demanded proof of this; Hamas did not immediately make any comment. Israel said that it did not suspect that AP personnel knew of Hamas's use of the building, and offered to assist AP in rebuilding its offices and operations in Gaza. Israel stated that it provided the US government intelligence on the strike but would not make the information public. US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken confirmed that Israel had sent the US information and said "It's my understanding that we've received some further information through intelligence channels, and it's not something I can comment on." On the same day — the 73rd anniversary of the
nakba, in the first of several attacks on Gaza's industrial infrastructure, Israel fired an estimated six canisters of M150 Smoke HC 155mm shells between 5:46 and 5:48 pm into the Khudair Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Tools warehouse in
Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Such munitions are designed to create smoke screens to cover troop movements, though no Israeli forces were present in the area. The Khudair Warehouse stores roughly 50% of all vital
agricultural chemicals used in the besieged strip. The strike caused hundreds of tons of pesticides, fertilisers, plastics and nylons to go up in flames, with a toxic plume spreading 5.7 km2. A year later the
forensic architectural unit of the Palestinian NGO
Al-Haq concluded a study claiming that the strike amounted to the deployment by Israel of 'indirect ... chemical weapons'. Israel had foreknowledge of the contents of the warehouse, the materials all having been imported from Israel. According to legal experts, the incident may be prosecutable under the
Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court. The single deadliest incident of the campaign occurred on 16 May, when Israeli warplanes fired 11 missiles along a stretch of
Wehda Street, in the upscale
Rimal neighborhood. According to the IDF, a Hamas tunnel and underground command center were the targets of the attack which destroyed two residential buildings, killing 44 civilians. According to the IDF, the extent to which the underground military infrastructure had extended under civilian buildings in the area had not been known, and when the missiles exploded underground and destroyed the facilities targeted, they unexpectedly dislodged the foundations of civilian buildings above them, causing them to collapse. The IDF said that it had not expected the extent of the civilian casualties which occurred. Speaking to
The Independent, a senior Israeli military official said that the civilian death toll was unexpected and that the attack had been aimed at the center of the road to minimize collateral damage, but that the IDF's calculations had failed to anticipate the collapse of nearby buildings. The official said that the Israeli Air Force suspected that there may have been explosives or munitions stored in the underground infrastructure targeted which ultimately caused the buildings to collapse. Another senior Israeli official later said that the estimated 1/1 ratio between militants and civilians in the strike was 'phenomenal' given how deeply military infrastructure was embedded in civilian areas of the neighborhood. On May 26, Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Hamas political wing in Gaza, denied that any of their tunnels were under civilian areas and dismissed the accusation as "baseless". The Israeli Air Force carried out another large-scale series of raids against Hamas' tunnel network on 17 May, bombing over 15 kilometers of underground passages, with 54 Israeli jets dropping 110 bombs. The homes of nine Hamas commanders and a home used by Hamas' military intelligence branch were also bombed. During the fighting, Hamas militants with
anti-tank guided missiles repeatedly took positions in apartments and behind dunes. These teams were identified by IDF reconnaissance units and subsequently destroyed in pinpoint attacks. At least 20 such teams were destroyed by Israeli air and ground forces. In addition, the IDF sank Hamas' fleet of small unmanned submarines designed to explode under or near Israeli naval vessels or
oil and gas drilling rigs. At two least attempts to launch attacks with autonomous submarines were intercepted. In one instance, a Hamas team was spotted launching the submarine. An Israeli navy vessel destroyed the submarine while it was still close to the shore and the Israeli Air Force subsequently attacked the team which launched it.
F-16 warplane takes off with guided munition to strike targets in the Gaza Strip By the end of the campaign, over 4,360 rockets and mortar shells had been fired at southern and central Israel, an average of 400 per day. About 3,400 successfully crossed the border while 680 fell in Gaza and 280 fell into the sea. The Iron Dome shot down 1,428 rockets detected as heading toward populated areas, an interception rate of 95 percent. Some 60–70 rockets hit populated areas after the Iron Dome failed to intercept them. The IDF estimated that it destroyed 850 rockets in strikes on the Gaza Strip and also severely degraded local rocket manufacturing capabilities in strikes on about three dozen rocket production centers. In addition, Israel assassinated numerous Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders with airstrikes. Nearly 30 senior Hamas commanders were assassinated by the IDF during the campaign. Israel's ability to locate senior commanders to such an extent indicated extensive Israeli intelligence penetration of Hamas' ranks. According to Israeli journalist
Haviv Rettig Gur, Israel systematically thwarted Hamas' tactical innovations and destroyed the military infrastructure it had prepared for a future war, which proved "ineffective or outright useless". The United Nations said that more than 72,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced, sheltering mostly at 48 UNRWA schools in Gaza. After the ceasefire, less than 1,000 displaced Palestinians were sheltering in UNRWA schools, down from a peak of around 66,000. UNWRA discovered a cavity 7.5 metres under one of its two schools in Gaza that had been damaged by Israeli air strikes. The structure had neither an exit from or entry into the school's premises, and the organization strongly condemned both the IDF and the Palestinians responsible for building the "possible" tunnel.
Lebanon and Syria On 13 May at least three
rockets were fired from the coastal area of
Qlaileh just south of the Palestinian refugee camp of
Rashidieh in the Southern Lebanese district of
Tyre across the
Israeli–Lebanese border, according to the IDF, landing in the
Mediterranean Sea.
Hezbollah denied responsibility for the rocket launches and Lebanese Army troops were deployed to the area around the refugee camp, finding several rockets there. On 14 May, dozens of Lebanese demonstrated on the Israel-Lebanon border in solidarity with the Palestinians. A small group of demonstrators cut through the border fence and crossed into Israel, setting fires near
Metulla. IDF troops fired at them, killing one who was later identified as a member of Hezbollah. Another was wounded and later died of his injuries. The following day, Lebanese demonstrators damaged the border fence with Molotov cocktails and other items. The IDF said that on 19 May four rockets were fired from near
Siddikine village in the
Tyre District of Southern Lebanon towards Haifa. One was intercepted, another landed in an open area, and the remaining two fell into the sea. The Israeli army responded with artillery fire. ==Casualties and damage==