The events with Palestine and Israel have escalated extremely quick and have been the tensest in recent years.
First, we’d like to give a New York Times timeline to outline what has transpired thus far:
“Twenty-seven days before the first rocket was fired from Gaza a squad of Israeli police officers entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, pushed the Palestinian attendants aside. Then they cut the cables to the loudspeakers that broadcast prayers.
It was the night of April 13, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was also Memorial Day in Israel, which honors those who died fighting for the country. The Israeli president was delivering a speech at the Western Wall, a sacred Jewish site that lies below the mosque, and Israeli officials were concerned that the prayers would drown it out.
But in hindsight, the police raid on the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, was one of several actions that led, less than a month later, to the sudden resumption of war between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, and the outbreak of civil unrest between Arabs and Jews across Israel itself.
It has spawned unrest in cities across the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians on Friday. And it has resulted in the firing of rockets toward Israel from a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, prompted Jordanians to march toward Israel in protest, and led Lebanese protesters to briefly cross their southern border with Israel. It had been seven years since the last significant conflict with Hamas, and 16 since the last major Palestinian uprising.
To help quell the tension, foreign diplomats and community leaders tried to persuade the Israeli government to lower the temperature in Jerusalem, at least by reopening the square outside Damascus Gate. But they found the government distracted and uninterested, said a person involved in the discussions, who was not authorized to speak publicly. On April 25, the government relented on allowing Palestinians to gather outside the Damascus Gate; then came a sleuth of developments that significantly widened the pressures.
The most dramatic escalation of all happened about a week later: a police raid on the Aqsa Mosque on Friday, May 7. Police officers armed with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-tipped bullets burst into the mosque compound shortly after 8 p.m., setting off hours of clashes with stone-throwing protesters in which hundreds were injured.
That set the stage for a dramatic showdown on Monday, May 10. A final court hearing on Sheikh Jarrah was set to coincide with Jerusalem Day, when Jews celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem, by dint of the capture of East Jerusalem, in 1967. The looming combination of that march, tensions over Al Aqsa and the possibility of an eviction order in Sheikh Jarrah seemed to be building toward something dangerous.
From an international perspective, EU foreign ministers to call for ceasefire. They echo Joe Biden’s openness to seek a solution to the decades-old conflict was crucial, “because unless we address the root causes (the violence) will happen again”. After a ceasefire, the EU would “work with the United States, work with Russia to try and deal with the situation,” he added.”
EU foreign ministers are debating how to use the 27-nation bloc’s political clout to help diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in the Middle East. The United States has also been involved in diplomatic pressure.
A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip appeared to be holding hours after coming into effect. It began early on Friday, May 21, 2021, ending 11 days of fighting in which more than 250 people were killed, most of them in Gaza. Both Israel and Hamas claimed victory in the conflict. More provocations have broken out at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday, testing the truce.
This is an ongoing situation with repeated actions from both sides. If your business has operations in Israel, Palestine, or even within the Middle East, it’s important to note that escalations can come out of nowhere. It is recommended to monitor the situations, create risk mitigation plans for both your property and employees and ensure that you have the proper coverage in the event that this impacts business operations, trade operations or employee productivity.
Footnotes: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/15/world/middleeast/israel-palestinian-gaza-war.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/israel-palestine-eu-foreign-ministers-to-call-for-ceasefire