"All the ministers and security officials in the meeting agreed we can't keep quiet after missiles were filed on Jerusalem."
A minister from Israel's security cabinet to Axios following Monday's meeting. The minister said Israel's response would be wide-ranging and substantial.
Driving the news: Starting early Monday morning, Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli police in the Old City of Jerusalem at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, or Temple Mount, one of the holiest sites for both Muslims and Jews. Around 300 Palestinians were wounded, with ten in critical condition.
- Those clashes followed days of protests over the planned evictions of six Palestinian families from a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers. Israel's supreme court delayed its decision on the evictions on Sunday.
- After a tense phone call Sunday evening between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben Shabbat, Israel started taking steps to de-escalate the situation.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the closure of the Temple Mount to Jewish visitors and later ordered the re-routing of an annual nationalist parade so that it would not pass through the Muslim Quarter and the Damascus Gate, two potential flashpoints in the old City of Jerusalem.
But the militant group Hamas gave Israel an ultimatum on Monday afternoon, threatening military action if all Israeli police didn't leave the al-Aqsa Mosque compound by 11am ET.
- Minutes after the deadline expired, Hamas fired rockets from Gaza towards Jerusalem — around 50 miles away. Hamas then fired another 40 rockets toward Israeli towns close to Gaza.
- The Israeli air force retaliated with strikes in Gaza and said it had killed three Hamas operatives. Gaza health officials said nine Palestinians were killed, including three children.
- What to watch: The Israeli security cabinet convened for an emergency meeting and decided on a wider response, which Israeli military officials said would be wide-ranging and could last several days.
The big picture: The current escalation comes amid deep political crises on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides.
It complicates the efforts of Netanyahu rivals Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett to form an alternative government as soon as this week to oust the prime minister, who was unable to form a government of his own after elections in March.
- Monday's violence led Mansour Abbas, leader of the Ra'am Islamist party — an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and sister movement of Hamas — to suspend coalition talks.
- Lapid and Bennett have been trying to convince Ra'am to support their alternative government, while Netanyahu also met Abbas on Sunday in an attempt to convince him not to join the alternative government.
Meanwhile Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed long-awaited parliamentary elections that had been scheduled for May 22.
- Between the lines: Abbas blamed alleged Israeli obstruction in canceling the vote, which he was in danger of losing, and later backed the Palestinians who were confronting Israeli police in Jerusalem.
- Hamas, meanwhile, is trying to win popular support in Jerusalem and the West Bank by backing the protests in Jerusalem and firing rockets from Gaza.
