Clashes break out at Jerusalem holy site, 67 Palestinians injured

JERUSALEM – Israeli security forces entered Al-Aqsa . Mosque compounds in Jerusalem before dawn on Friday when thousands of Palestinians gathered for prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, sparking clashes that medics say have injured at least 67 Palestinians.

Israel says its forces in to remove rocks and stones that have been gathered as a precaution against violence. The site is sacred to Jews and Muslims, often the focus of unrest between Israel and Palestine, and tensions have been running high amid recent wave of violence. Clashes at the site last year helped spark an 11-day war with Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip.

The clashes come at a particularly sensitive time.

This year’s month of Ramadan coincides with Passover, a major week-long Jewish holiday that begins Friday at sundown, and the Christian holy week, which culminates on Easter Sunday. The holidays are expected to bring tens of thousands of believers into Jerusalem’s Old City, home to major sites sacred to all three religions.

Videos circulating online showed Palestinians hurling rocks and fireworks and police firing tear gas and stun grenades into crowds around the mosque. Others showed worshipers barricading themselves inside the mosque amid what appeared to be clouds of tear gas.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Emergency Service said it had evacuated 67 people to hospital, who were injured by rubber bullets or stun grenades, or beaten with batons. Thien Phu said that one of the guards at this site was shot in the eye by a rubber bullet.

Israeli police said three officers were injured by “violent stone throwing”, and two were evacuated from the scene for treatment.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said dozens of masked men carrying Palestinian and Hamas flags marched to the complex early Friday and collected stones.

“Police were forced into the base to disperse the crowd and remove rocks and stones, to prevent further violence,” it wrote on Twitter.

Police said they waited until the vigils ended and the crowd began to disperse. In a statement, they said the crowd began hurling stones in the direction of the Western Wall, a nearby Jewish holy site, forcing them to act. They said they did not enter the mosque.

Palestinians consider any major police deployment in Al-Aqsa a major provocation.

Israel’s national security minister, Omer Barlev, who oversaw the police force, said Israel was “not interested” in the violence in the holy place but that police were forced to confront “violent elements” who had confronted them. head to them with stones and metal rods.

He said Israel is committed to ensuring freedom of worship for Jews as well as Muslims. Police said Friday noon prayers at the mosque – when tens of thousands of people are expected – would go ahead as usual.

The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. It is built on a hilltop in Jerusalem’s Old City and is the holiest site for the Jews, who call it the Temple Mount because it was the site of ancient Jewish temples. It has been a major focal point for violence between Israel and Palestine for decades and was the epicenter of the 2000-2005 Palestinian intifada uprising.

Tensions have been high in recent weeks following a series of Palestinian attacks that left 14 people inside Israel dead. Israel has carried out a wave of arrests and military operations across the occupied West Bank, sparking clashes with the Palestinians.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 17-year-old man had died early Friday morning from injuries sustained during clashes with Israeli forces in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, a day earlier.

At least 25 Palestinians have been killed in the recent wave of violence, according to the Associated Press, many of whom carried out attacks or were involved in the clashes, but also a woman. unarmed and a lawyer apparently killed by mistake.

Weeks of protests and clashes in Jerusalem during the month of Ramadan last year finally sparked an 11-day war with the Islamist militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.

Israel has lifted restrictions and taken other steps to try to defuse tensions ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, but military strikes and airstrikes have triggered another cycle of unrest.

Hamas condemned what it said were “brutal attacks” on worshipers at Al-Aqsa by Israeli forces, saying Israel would bear “all consequences.” It called on all Palestinians to “stay with our people in Jerusalem.”

Earlier this week, Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza urged Palestinians to camp at the Al-Aqsa mosque over the weekend. Palestinians have long feared that Israel plans to take over the site or partition it.

Israeli authorities say they are committed to maintaining the status quo, but in recent years nationalist and religious Jews have visited the site in large numbers accompanied by police escorts. close.

Israel captured east Jerusalem, home to Al-Aqsa and other major holy sites, in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not internationally recognized. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city to be the capital of a future independent state that includes the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel also captured in a war nearly 55 years ago.

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here