JERUSALEM — Israeli police stopped Muslim worshipers from getting into the Aqsa Mosque compound early Sunday morning and temporary clashes broke out in close by facet streets, two days after violence erupted on the holy web site.
The police, in search of to stop contact between Muslims and Jews who had entered the compound, confined Muslims who had been already inside it to small elements of the positioning, hanging some with batons. They supplied Jewish worshipers with a police escort as they walked across the perimeter of the positioning, referred to as the Temple Mount to Jews, which was the situation of an historical temple thought of the holiest place in Judaism.
Earlier, Palestinians had gathered close to the doorway utilized by non-Muslims to enter the positioning, blocking a part of the route that’s often utilized by Jews to discreetly pray close to the place the traditional Jewish temple stood.
Clashes later broke out within the facet streets across the mosque compound, because the police used batons and sound grenades to pressure again Muslims who had been attempting to enter. Palestinians shouted, “With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for Al Aqsa.”
At least 17 individuals had been injured, 5 of them hospitalized, in keeping with Palestinian Red Crescent medics on the scene. At least 5 individuals had been hit by rubber-tipped bullets, the medics stated.
Some Palestinians had been additionally detained by the police, stated Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, a senior cleric on the mosque. The police additionally disabled the loudspeakers on the mosque, after Palestinians tried to make use of the sound system to name individuals to the positioning, Sheikh Omar added.
Other Palestinians locked themselves within the largest mosque within the compound, because the police patrolled exterior.
Tensions are sometimes excessive on the complicated in Jerusalem’s Old City, which is sacred to each Islam and Judaism. But they’re significantly tense in the intervening time due to a uncommon overlap between Ramadan and Passover, which has prompted extra Muslims and Jews to enter the positioning than standard.
Muslims contemplate efforts by some Jewish activists to hope furtively on the web site to be a provocation as a result of they violate the longstanding Israeli coverage of permitting Jews to go to however not pray. They additionally worry that Jewish prayer there’ll give momentum to campaigns by small extremist teams to construct a brand new Jewish temple on the web site.
Many Muslims have additionally been angered by latest efforts by extremist Jews to enter the compound with younger goats to make a Passover sacrifice. The police stated final week that they’d arrested some activists who had been planning such a sacrifice.
While some rabbis help Jews praying on Temple Mount, one of many chief rabbis of Israel, David Lau, launched a press release final week saying it was forbidden for Jews to set foot there, a stance that many chief rabbis have held since 1967, when Israel captured the positioning from Jordan. Many Jews imagine that by getting into the positioning, they danger stepping on among the most sacred areas of the traditional Jewish temple.
On Friday, Israeli riot police, firing rubber-tipped bullets and stun grenades, stormed the principle mosque within the compound to detain tons of of Palestinians, lots of whom had been throwing stones at them. More than 150 individuals had been injured.
The latest clashes have adopted a wave of Palestinian assaults on Israelis and lethal Israeli raids within the occupied West Bank.
Similar clashes on the mosque final 12 months contributed to the outbreak of an 11-day battle between Israel and militants in Gaza led by Hamas, the Islamist motion that controls the strip.
This 12 months, nevertheless, each Israel and Hamas have signaled that they don’t seem to be in search of an escalation. Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas official, stated on Saturday that either side had conveyed by Qatari officers that they didn’t desire a new conflagration.
But Islamic Jihad, one other militant group in Gaza, stated Sunday that latest tensions on the mosque would result in an “all-out confrontation.”
Myra Noveck contributed reporting from Jerusalem and Iyad Abu Heweila from Gaza City.