JUDY WOODRUFF: And now back to tensions exploding in Jerusalem and in Gaza. Hamas militants
today fired rockets into Israel and toward Jerusalem. In response, Israel conducted airstrikes
in Gaza, killing more than 20 people, including at least nine children. For more than a week,
Palestinians have protested throughout Jerusalem over attempts to evict Palestinian families
from their homes. Amna Nawaz has the story. AMNA NAWAZ: In Jerusalem today, thousands
gathered to celebrate the Israeli capture of the eastern part of the city from Jordan
54 years ago. But, by early evening, they were forced to disband, as air raid sirens
warning of Hamas rockets echoed through the city. For days, the streets in nearby majority
Palestinian East Jerusalem have been far from peaceful. The holy sites reek of tear gas.
The stench of skunk water deployed by Israeli soldiers pollutes the air, and stun grenades
light up the streets. Over the weekend, Israeli soldiers injured more than three hundred people
observing the end of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Tensions are high in the
Holy Land, fueled partly by the potential eviction of Palestinian families from their
Jerusalem homes. FAKHRI ABU DIAB, Protester (through translator): Everything that is happening
is meant to drive Palestinians out and try to empty Jerusalem completely of them. AMNA
NAWAZ: Six Palestinian families face eviction in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
The decision rests with the Israeli Supreme Court, which delayed the case today. Muna
Kurd is a member of one of those families. MUNA KURD, Resident of Sheikh Jarrah (through
translator): This is an arbitrary collective displacement of a large group of people. Israel
wants to raze our neighborhood and put Israeli settlers in our place. But we emphasize our
right to this land. Since 1956, these are our homes. We were born here. We grew up here,
and we will remain in our homes. WOMAN: You are stealing my house, MAN: And if I don't
steal it, someone else is going to steal it. AMNA NAWAZ: But Israeli settlers say the area
is holy to them, because it was built beside the tomb of a Jewish high priest and they
owned the land prior to Israel's 1948 founding. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
voiced support for Israeli soldiers and police in Jerusalem. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli
Prime Minister (through translator): This is not a mission that we can carry out without
conflict from time to time with those same forces of intolerance that want to take away
our rights to the Temple Mount and the other holy sites. This requires from time to time
standing up and standing strong, as Israeli police and our security forces are doing now.
We support them in this just struggle. AMNA NAWAZ: The neighborhood has become another
flash point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians say it represents a wider push
to remove them from areas strategic to Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem. In the last four
years, Netanyahu's government built over 9,000 new settlement homes in the West Bank and
Jerusalem, an expansion policy unchallenged by the Trump administration. Palestinian families
attempting to defend their homes have been met with violence from Israeli settlers and
arrests by Israeli soldiers. Last week, the U.N. called the evictions illegal. RUPERT
COLVILLE, Spokesman, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: The evictions, if ordered
and implemented, would violate Israel's obligations under international law. AMNA NAWAZ: Today,
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. is concerned with escalating violence.
JEN PSAKI, White House Press Secretary: Our national security adviser, Jake Sullivan,
reiterated concerns about the potential evictions of Palestinian families from their homes.
And they agreed that the launching of rocket attacks and incendiary balloons from Gaza
towards Israel is unacceptable and must be condemned. AMNA NAWAZ: Sheikh Jarrah has long
been a contentious site between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. In 2009, settlers evicted
dozens of families from their homes in the neighborhood. But, in the past month, tensions
have again come to a boiling point. In April, hundreds of Israeli extremists marched through
Jerusalem yelling death to Arabs. Today, even as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan comes
to a close, this conflict is far from over. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Amna Nawaz.