City closed and reopened

Youths taunting
soldiers below our
house

Yesterday's tensions at the Al Aqsa compound was totally closed off to everyone after the riots in the afternoon. It was eerily solent at sunset when there was no call to prayer over the megaphones. The Old City was closed off to all arabs except residents. From the news we saw groups of muslims praying in the streets outside the Old City. Later in the evening, there were jeers and taunts shouted from behind our house as Israeli soldiers patrolled the alleys and streets. In front of our house, groups of youths jeered at soldiers at Bab Hutta. Police vehicles and ambulance raced in and out of our Quarter. Fireworks were fired at midnight but we're not sure if it was celebrate or used as weapons against soldiers. For sure this closure will fan more hatred and violence.  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5477508,00.html?fbclid=IwAR1n18DZL7w02HZpkhtQipaVasHaCoRJaw-7etQAUwvlxAllJwQ5agLPSTc

Border police patrolling the streets

Luckily this morning the closure was lifted. Arabs from outside the City were allowed in and the gates of the Al Aqsa compound were reopened. At 4.30am the call to prayer was broadcast through the megaphones ... waking us all. Tensions seem to have lessened though stop-and-search continues randomly at all street corners.

Well there's talk in the streets that all this tension is a ploy by the ruling party to scare voters to vote for the incumbent govt. Such scare tactics are common and we've seen it all before. In fact today news headlines is about a Hezbolla garrison gathering at our northern border. The Israeli army is gathering its troops up north and tensions are high at that border. Once again this plays into hands of the political parties. Snap elections are scheduled on the 1st week of April.  https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium-hezbollah-establishing-terror-infrastructure-in-syrian-golan-idf-says-1.7018436?fbclid=IwAR1jK3jFWC1qSP8gZbbxFK6JTvY3zRMIRCkkeCVtu4VZ4IEvKDMzqCVTcPM

I'm having a slow day ... recovering from yesterday's op. It's not quite so painful and my main problem is the fever and general fatigue. Spent most of the afternoon resting and correcting an article. I find my memory going as I struggle to remember words and names and even their spelling ... it makes correcting a text so much more frustrating. In fact I was stuck writing this blog as I struggled to find a couple of common words like "patrol". This is scary.