Stones were thrown from the Temple Mount again this year.

A cypress tree next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque caught fire, believed to have been caused by a Molotov cocktail thrown by rioting Palestinian youth.

And this year, too, boys with Hamas headbands took over parts of the sanctuary.

But beyond the dramatic individual shots, the key decision-makers have kept a cool head this time.

Jochen Stahnke

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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In Israel and Palestine, a week of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday that had led to war last year is coming to an almost peaceful end.

Twelve months ago, the Islamists used the holiday riots as an opportunity to fire rockets at Jerusalem and later at other cities in Israel, which then led to a war that lasted almost two weeks.

Only a year later, Hamas apparently does not want to afford this again, whose military stocks have been reduced by the war and whose infrastructure the Israeli armed forces had hit hard in some cases.

In addition, a new Israeli program of work permits for Palestinians from Gaza offers an important source of income for the population.

Less cause for riots

Unlike a year ago, Hamas refrained from long-range rocket fire this week.

The Islamists made it clear through press releases that they have no interest in another war.

Nevertheless, keep your “finger on the trigger”.

At least one rocket was fired from Gaza on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Neither caused any personal injury.

The Israeli Air Force then attacked an underground weapons manufacturing facility in Gaza.

Nothing was known about the dead.

The attack patterns followed the reciprocity of past phases between the wars - the reciprocal skirmishes rather pointed to the continuation of the cynical normality between Israel and Hamas.

In addition, unlike last year, the Israeli government gave the Palestinian rebels in Jerusalem far fewer reasons to riot.

In 2021, the government under Benjamin Netanyahu had approved a so-called flag march through the Muslim quarters of Jerusalem, which nationalist Jews use every year as an opportunity to wish “Arabs” expulsion and death.

In addition, the government at the time had a symbolically important area such as the Damascus Gate cordoned off.

However, the new government under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and “alternating” Prime Minister Jair Lapid left the area open.

The flag march was unceremoniously banned in its earlier form.

Israeli security forces also did not throw stun grenades at Al-Aqsa Mosque that year.

Conversations between Bennett, Lapid and King Abdullah

The restraint of the security forces may have been ordered not least out of consideration for the Arab Raam party.

Raam had made her remaining in the already fragile governing coalition dependent on the treatment of the Palestinians in Jerusalem during the holidays.

Lapid explained that Israel has no intention of changing the “status quo” on the Temple Mount – this is a constant argument of Islamist propaganda, but one that has not been entirely unfounded in the past either: last year, Jordan accused Netanyahu of playing the defined role of the Hashemite king as the guardian of the holy Muslim sites.

Before the war began last year, there had been no direct, publicly known contact between Netanyahu and King Abdullah.

This is also different with the new government in Jerusalem: Bennett, Lapid and King Abdullah speak to each other regularly.

And for the first time since diplomatic relations were established in 2020, the United Arab Emirates also had the Israeli ambassador summoned because of the clashes in Jerusalem, which was followed on Thursday night by what was officially a friendly telephone call between Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Lapid.

Egypt and the United States also mediated intensively: Deputy Foreign Minister Yael Lempert visited Amman, Ramallah and Jerusalem this week.

Apparently with success.