ISRAEL: Palestinians clash with Israeli police at Jerusalem holy site, 57 injured
New Delhi: At least 57 stone pelters Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police within the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Friday.
Israeli police said they intervened when hundreds of people hurled rocks and fireworks and drew close to the Western Wall, where Jewish worship was underway. A policewoman was injured by a stone and a tree was set alight by the fireworks.
Palestinians accuse Israel of restricting Muslim worship at Al-Aqsa – the third-holiest site in Islam – while not doing enough to enforce a long-standing ban on Jewish prayer at the compound. Israel denies this.
The mosque director said that “police entered the compound after the morning Ramadan prayers and fired rubber-tipped bullets and stun grenades at a crowd, some of whom were throwing rocks. Police also used a drone to drop tear gas.”
The surge of violence has raised fears of a relapse into a broader conflict like last year’s war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas Islamists ruling the Gaza Strip.
According to the media report, Since March 22, Arab assailants have killed 14 people in Israel, including three police officers, and Israeli forces have killed at least 14 Palestinians, among them gunmen and civilians, in the occupied West Bank.
(Smit Soni)
