Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Tensions are rising and rocket fire is constantly changing as Sderot, Ashkelon and Tel Aviv are under fire. In Jerusalem, the Temple Mount riots are escalating.

The central Israeli city of Lod was placed under emergency lockdown on Tuesday night to clamp down on violence undertaken by Arab residents there. The population of about 80,000 Jews and Arabs saw rioting and looting on Tuesday night. Arab mobs were seen throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police, while also burning trash cans and tires.

They also firebombed the Maoz yeshivah, with a synagogue and dozens of cars belonging to Jewish residents set on fire.

Lod, in central Israel, is adjacent to Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport, which was temporarily shut down earlier in the evening due to incoming rockets from the Gaza Strip.

Mansour Abbas, the head of the Arab Ra'am Party, called for calm in Lod and neighboring Ramla, saying that while he understood the anger "things are developing in very dangerous directions, as peaceful popular demonstrations have turned into direct clashes which threaten the lives and safety of our youth."

Early Wednesday morning, a rocket fell in Lod and killed two people - a woman in her 40s and a 7-year-old girl.

With news changing constantly, weekly reports are not enough. Heritage will run updates daily on the website at http://www.heritagefl.com.