OCCUPIED PALESTINE: At least 42 Palestinians have been injured on Friday in a raid by Israeli police forces on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, following weeks of violence at the flashpoint site.
The unrest came on the final Friday in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Most of those injured suffered “upper-body injuries” the Red Crescent said, adding that 22 people had been taken to hospital.
Israeli police said forces entered the compound after “rioters” hurled stones and fireworks, including down towards the Western Wall, the sacred Jewish site below Al-Aqsa.
Witnesses said police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
Police said three people had been arrested, two for throwing stones and one for “inciting the mob”.
“For the past hour, the site has been quiet and [Muslim] worshippers are safely entering [the compound],” police said.
But tensions remain high at the site in the heart of Jerusalem’s old, walled city, part of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.
Over the past two weeks, nearly 300 Palestinians have been injured in Israeli incursions at the Al-Aqsa compound, Islam’s third-holiest site.
Muslim leaders have been angered by a recent uptick in the number of Israeli settlers entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The longstanding convention has been that only Muslims are allowed to pray at the compound, but, according to the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, nearly 3,700 Israeli settlers have entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound over the past week to mark the Jewish festival of Passover.
Most Orthodox Jews do not pray inside the compound, believing it to not be religiously acceptable, and Jerusalem’s Chief Rabbinate also forbids prayer there. However, a growing number of Israeli religious nationalists have encouraged Jewish prayer on the site, with elements calling for the construction of a Jewish temple there.
The growing presence of the movement has led to many Palestinians fearing that Israel is seeking to divide the compound and create a space where Jews may worship.
In an apparent attempt to ease tensions, Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid has stressed that the government was committed to the status quo at the compound, and said that no plan to divide it exists
However, Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank still face tough restrictions on visiting the Al-Aqsa compound, a national symbol for Palestinians, with travel being almost totally restricted for most of the year, and only allowed for certain age groups during Ramadan. In effect, this means that many Palestinians who live only miles away from East Jerusalem have never been able to visit.
