Violence broke out between Israelis and Palestinians in the flashpoint east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah Sunday after an Israeli lawmaker reopened a makeshift “office” at the site in protest over a firebombing of a Jewish home. The move prompted the Hamas terror group to warn “Palestine would burn over Jerusalem.”

Eight people were arrested for public disorder, including throwing stones and macing protesters.
Itamar Ben Gvir, of the right-wing Religious Zionism party, vowed to set up an office after a Jewish home was firebombed over the weekend.

“A murderous terror organization cannot operate in Jerusalem. Vehicles are set ablaze, children are getting hurt. They threaten us and the State of Israel,” Ben-Gvir said in a statement Ben-Gvir.

 “We are the landlords,” Ben-Gvir said, adding that “we must respond to terror with terror.”

Israeli security forces detain a Palestinian man following clashes with Israeli settlers and a visit by Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir of the Religious Zionism alliance (unseen) in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on February 13, 2022. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the Jerusalem Post, Hamas responded the situation in Sheikh Jarrah was a “dangerous escalation that cannot be tolerated,” and added that it would “explode in Israel’s face.”

The terror group “would not hesitate defend Sheikh Jarrah if the aggression of the occupation and its settlers continues,” Hamas spokesman Muhammad Hamadeh warned.

“Our message to the whole world…Jerusalem is a red line and we are ready to offer the most precious in order to repel the occupation’s aggression against our people,” said Hamadeh.

Israeli settlers clash with Palestinians in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on February 13, 2022. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty)

After a decades-long legal case, an Israeli court ruled that 11 Palestinian residents had to evacuate homes in Sheikh Jarrah. The Palestinians residing there had never paid rent while the Jewish Israelis who had hoped to move in to the properties secured the title deeds in a legal manner.
Nevertheless, the incident turned into a symbolic event of international proportions and played a large part in Hamas’ decision to kick off the 11-day conflict last May and launch thousands of rockets at Israel.

The Times of Israel reported:

On Sunday morning, right-wing Jewish Israelis, including Ben Gvir, gathered in the front yard of a home currently lived in by the Salems, a Palestinian family.

The Salem family arrived in Sheikh Jarrah as refugees from Qaluniya, near Jerusalem, following the 1948 war that saw the establishment of Israel, and moved into a home that had been owned by Jews before 1948. After Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, it passed legislation that allowed Israelis to reclaim property that had fallen into the hands of the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property, which includes the Salem family home.