With the new upsurge in violence in the Middle East, Israeli artillery targeted “the region of Syria from which rockets were fired”, the Israeli army announced on Sunday, indicating that it had also used a drone.

Shots confirmed by Syria. “At around 5 a.m. this morning (2 a.m. GMT), the Israeli enemy fired several projectiles from the occupied Golan, targeting several areas in the south,” the official Syrian agency Sana said, adding that these strikes caused “ property damage “. In addition, some projectiles were “intercepted” by the Syrian air defense.

Pope Francis expressed this Sunday on the occasion of the feast of Easter his “deep concern because of the attacks of recent days” in the Middle East, which according to him threaten the “dialogue” between Israelis and Palestinians.

The violence in Jerusalem and the region “threatens the desired climate of trust and mutual respect necessary to resume dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians”, said the Argentine pope during his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing, in front of some 100 000 faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, in the Vatican.

Thirty rockets

The Israeli strike of the night comes after the two anti-Israeli attacks which left three dead on Friday. An Italian tourist was killed and seven others, aged 17 to 74, injured in the attack, which occurred on a Sabbath evening and during the week of Passover. Earlier on Friday, two sisters from the Israeli settlement of Efrat, aged 16 and 20 and holders of Israeli and British nationalities, were killed and their mother seriously injured in a Palestinian attack on their car in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory by Israel since 1967

Separately, according to the Israeli military, at least one of the rockets fired from Syria was intercepted by Israeli anti-aircraft defenses and two landed in wasteland in the part of the Golan annexed by Israel after being conquered in 1967.

On Thursday, around 30 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israel, injuring one person and causing material damage. The Israeli army retaliated by carrying out strikes in Gaza and southern Lebanon. For the Israeli army, the shots from Lebanon, unclaimed, were “Palestinian” and very likely from the Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip. This is an unprecedented escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese front since 2006.

92 Palestinians, 18 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian killed

The two countries are technically in a state of war after different conflicts and the ceasefire line is controlled by the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL), deployed in southern Lebanon.

On Friday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “ordered the police to mobilize all reserve border police units, and the army to mobilize additional forces”.

This Sunday, the Israel Police said that four reserve Border Police battalions would be deployed in city centers, in addition to the units already mobilized in the mixed city of Lod and in the Jerusalem area. In addition, the Ministry of Defense confirmed on Saturday evening mobilizing soldiers to support the police and announced that it would tighten entry restrictions into Israel for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in particular workers.

For its part, Qatar, which has already served as a mediator between Israel and Hamas in power in Gaza, has announced that it wants to intervene to implement “a de-escalation”. Since the beginning of January, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of at least 92 Palestinians, 18 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian.