now. high alert on the israeli lebanese border after dozens of rockets were fired from lebanon into israel earlier today, israel says many but not all of them were intercepted, and it has now closed down its northern airspace. this latest episode comes after israeli forces stormed the al aqsa mosque, one of islam s holiest sites for the second time late last night. israeli police say they entered the mosque after quote dozens of lawbreaking juveniles threw fireworks and stones and barricaded themselves inside all of this happening during a holy period for both islamic and jewish faiths. elliot is in jerusalem for us, elliot bring us up to speed on where things stand on the ground right now, beginning with the latest round of rocket fire. abby just this hour. we ve received more reports from the i d f that there were three mortars fired
potentially see things escalating, perhaps towards the level that we saw the last time there was an all out war between the two sides in 2006. the fact that it s from palestinian factions should suggest that the response will be somewhat more measured, abby all right, elliot godkin. thank you very much for that report. and for more on this now, let s bring in dennis ross. he s a longtime peace negotiator under republican and democratic administrations, including serving as a former special middle east coordinator under president clinton and a special assistant under president obama. he s now a counselor at the washington institute for near east policy, dennis, thanks for joining us first to start can you just give us your reaction to what we have seen transpire in israel over the last two days? well, look, we are. we always knew that the reality of having ramadan on one hand and pass over on the other . take place at the same time was bound to create a real potential for violence,
after israeli four polices stormed just jerusalem s al aqsa mosque. two separate times this week alone. elliot godkin is outfront in jerusalem. elliot, what more can you tell us about this escalating violence? be honor. it has been a night of escalating violence. israel said that it was going to retaliate for this barrage of rockets from southern lebanon into israel, for which it blamed palestinian militant groups either from hamas or islamic jihad, both of whom operate in the gaza strip, which, of course hamas controls , and i suppose this we re not sure if this is all of the retaliation that israel is going to be carrying out, but certainly it would seem to be some of it. and as you say it s been bombing sites in the gaza strip. two underground tunnels. it said that were controlled by hamas and also to weapons manufacturing facilities as well. and we ve seen rockets flying out from the gaza strip towards israel towards the communities surrounding the gaza strip as well. sirens have b
, all members of netanyahu s own party, suggests halting the controversial reforms. let s now go to journalist elliott godkin. he s in television for us, elliot. it looks like these demonstrations are growing their building. what are the what are the protesters want? they want an end to this judicial overhaul . jim that s what they ve been calling for. for the past three months or so. they ve been protesting and that s what they want even more now that the defense minister has lost his job because he became the first minister to come out. from this government to call for a pause in this judicial overhaul. and as you say other ministers are also saying that they would potentially support a pause to and they may not seem like a large number of ministers. but it s important to remember that prime minister benjamin netanyahu s coalition government has 64 out of 120 seats in the knesset. it only takes five of presumably members of his party because ultrareligious parties
his only could party who would dare to challenge him and his plans for passing this judicial overhaul. opponents to it. and opponents to this government certainly seem to be escalating their actions they ve been protesting for the past three months on saturday evenings and in the middle of the week on thursdays, but this is a sunday evening here. this is not normal for them to come out onto the streets and not in a kind of numbers that i saw here earlier this evening. definitely tens of thousands, possibly more. it s now been down to, perhaps just a few single digits, thousands, but it looks like they re planning to stay here. but for somewhat longer and the interesting thing jim as well. is that although there are police here and there, the police are not trying to do anything. they re not trying to clear the highways are not trying to put out the fires at some point, presumably, they will. but for now, the protesters remain here. the fire billowing on the main highway through televis