It’s becoming an annual tradition.

• A handful of Israeli Jews make plans to sacrifice a Passover lamb atop the Temple Mount in accordance with Scripture.
• Despite the fact that Israeli authorities don’t let these religious activists get anywhere near realizing their goal, Arab Muslims riot at the Temple Mount against what they call efforts to “Judaize” the holy site (anyone who holds the Bible to be true knows that it’s already entirely Jewish).
• Israeli police quell the riots at the Temple Mount.
• Hamas and Islamic Jihad say this is an attack on the Al Aqsa Mosque (situated at the southern end of the Mount and today claimed as Islam’s third holiest site) and respond with rocket fire from Gaza.

Gaza-based terrorists fired at least nine rockets toward Israel during the predawn hours Wednesday. Israel’s Iron Dome intercepted four, another four landed in open areas, and one reportedly struck a factory in the town of Sderot.

Israeli forces responded with airstrikes and tank fire on terrorist positions in the coastal enclave.

A statement released by the IDF warned the Gaza terrorists that any further attacks would result in a serious escalation and that they would pay dearly.

Iron Dome intercepts rockets fired by #Gaza terrorists at the southern Israel town of Sderot.

Pray for #Israel as #Passover begins and our enemies try to ruin this happy occasion. pic.twitter.com/YQgC6fgj6h

— Israel Today (@israeltoday) April 5, 2023

Temple Mount ruckus

The overnight Gaza rocket fire was purportedly in response to an Israeli “assault” on the Al Aqsa Mosque atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Hamas likes to paint itself as the “defender of Al Aqsa.”

What really happened? After evening prayers (we are in the midst of Ramadan) a large group of Muslim youth barricaded themselves inside the Al Aqsa Mosque with a stockpile of stones and fireworks.

Israel Police officers tried to convince them to stand down, but were eventually forced to enter the mosque, at which point they were attacked with said stones and fireworks.

Yes, the pious Muslim youth shot fireworks inside Islam’s supposedly third holiest site.

ועכשיו התיעוד של המשטרה ממסגד אל-אקצא pic.twitter.com/4kVeqXYcQa

— חיים גולדברג (@haim_goldberg) April 4, 2023

Ironically, it was the Jewish state that decried the desecration of this Muslim place of worship.

“Unfortunately at the same time police are working to allow freedom of worship while maintaining law and order… There are those who choose to riot and disturb public order. These same rioters are first and foremost harming the Muslim public which comes to pray at the mosque…the rioters caused damage to the mosque and desecrated it,” read an Israel Police statement.

Judaism as a provocation

The Muslim rioters at the Temple Mount point to two reasons for their violent actions.

First, a 15-year-old Muslim boy was wounded earlier on Tuesday while part of a mob that attacked security forces in the nearby neighborhood of Silwan, which is the biblical City of David.

Officials reported that the mob threw stones and firebombs at a police vehicle. When they tried to force their way into the vehicle, the officers inside opened fire.

The second and more important reason for the riots is the attempt by some religious Jewish elements to reinstate the Passover sacrifice atop the Temple Mount.

Islam views expressions of Jewish faith at Judaism’s holiest site as a provocation, and even an act of war.

On Monday, police detained and searched the home of activist Rafael Morris, head of an organization called “Returning to the Mount.” For several years Morris has tried to sacrifice at Passover lamb at the Temple Mount, and has offered monetary reward to anyone else who succeeds in doing so.

In response to this news, several leading rabbis, including the chief rabbis of Israel, issued a statement calling on religious Jews to avoid the Temple Mount and warning of an outbreak of Islamic violence.

Earlier in the week, other rabbis had called on the government to finally extend freedom of religion to the Temple Mount by opening its gates to Jewish prayer.