A dangerous escalation against the backdrop of Muslim Ramadan and Jewish Passover in the Middle East, with the Israeli army hitting targets in Lebanon and Gaza at the same time since dawn, claiming it is in retaliation for rocket attacks by the Islamist group Hamas.

So far, two women have been killed and one injured in the occupied West Bank when their car came under fire, Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom said, without giving details.

The Israeli military said, for their part, that the vehicle was attacked near the settlement of Hamra in the northern Jordan Valley of the West Bank, an area captured by Israel in 1967.

“Now nobody wants an escalation,” an Israeli military spokesman told reporters. “I believe that at this stage, calm will be met with calm, at least for the next few hours.”

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a senior army official, said, however, that more infantry and artillery had been deployed to Israel’s northern and southern borders to reinforce defenses against any “possible scenario.”

Shortly before noon today, the Israeli military announced that those living near the Gaza border no longer need to be near shelters. Meanwhile, the streets of the Palestinian enclave were almost empty except for a few taxis and a few emergency vehicles.

More than 30 rockets were fired from the south of Lebanon into the northern regions of Israel.

About 34 rockets were fired from Lebanese territory into Israel yesterday, the largest such attack since 2006. According to the military, the Iron Dome air defense system shot down 25 missiles. However, at least seven of them fell on Israeli soil.

Israeli Prime Minister B. Netanyahu, the head of one of the most right-wing governments in the history of the country, said that “we will strike at our enemies, and they will pay the price for every attack,” opening a cabinet meeting, in close format, with the participation of only ministers responsible for security issues.

A new surge of tension in the region follows two consecutive nights of clashes between Israeli police and worshipers at the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the holy city that Israel has occupied and annexed.

Lebanon and Israel ‘don’t want war’, UN Interim Force says

Lebanon and Israel have given assurances that they “do not want war”, as announced today by the United Nations Interim Force (FINUL), deployed in southern Lebanon and guarding the neutral zone between the two countries, after contacts with their governments.

The blue-collar forces called on “all parties to cease all their (military) activities following Israeli strikes in the early hours that followed the launch of more than thirty rockets from southern Lebanon at Israel the day before.

Recall that at the beginning of this year, the leaders of Israel and Lebanon signed a landmark agreement on their maritime borders, thus opening the way to the exploration and production of hydrocarbons.

Source: Reuters, AFP, APE-MPE.