Israeli police have entered the grounds of Al-Aqsa Mosque as worshipers gathered for early morning prayers, two days after hundreds were arrested in another raid on the mosque.
Israeli authorities said they entered the site on Sunday to facilitate routine visits by Jews to the holy site, and the Palestinians stored stones and erected barriers at the site.
Police cleared Palestinians from the sprawling esplanade in front of the mosque while dozens stayed inside.
Palestinian medics said at least 17 people were injured. Three people were taken to hospital after being beaten or hit by rubberized bullets, according to the Palestinian Red Cross. The organization said it was prevented from accessing the site but managed to help the injured near Bab al-Asbat.
Nine people were arrested, police said, after Palestinians smashed the windows of two buses carrying Jewish visitors to the site, slightly injuring several of them.
(Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said the raid came ahead of a three-hour time frame in which non-Muslims are allowed to visit the site, the third holiest in Islam and the holiest for Jews who reference it it as Temple Mount.
Tensions ran high after far-right Jewish group Return to Temple Mount offered a cash prize to anyone who went into Al-Aqsa Mosque and sacrificed a goat – a Jewish religious ritual banned in the mosque and constitutes another provocation would .
“It didn’t happen, but it went viral on social media,” Ghoneim said, adding that it helped raise tensions.
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday blamed Israel for the consequences of the current tensions at Al-Aqsa.
“We call on the US government to break its silence and stop this aggression that will inflame the entire region,” US agency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement to state news agency Wafa.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also condemned the Israeli escalation at the flashpoint. A ministry statement said the Israeli escalation has defied an Arab and Islamic backlash and is “a continuation of [Israeli] plans to Judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Pope Francis called for free access to Jerusalem’s holy sites during his annual Easter address on Sunday, which this year coincided with the Muslim month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.
“May Israelis, Palestinians and all who reside in the Holy City join pilgrims in experiencing the beauty of peace, living in brotherhood and enjoying free access to the Holy Sites, in mutual respect for the rights of each individual,” he said.
More than 300 Palestinians were arrested in Al-Aqsa on Friday in what law enforcement officials said was the largest mass arrest in one hour and in one location in more than 20 years.
At least 158 Palestinians were injured in the violence that ensued.
Videos circulating online on Friday showed police firing tear gas and flashbang grenades and throwing stones at Palestinians.
Others showed worshipers barricading themselves inside the mosque amid clouds of tear gas.
But Palestinian cameraman Rami al-Khatib, who witnessed the raid, said: “You [Israeli forces] brutally emptied the site. They attacked the mosque staff, ordinary people, elders, young people.
“There were many injured, they fired rubber bullets at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. They beat everyone, even the medics, they beat them,” said al-Khatib, who suffered a broken hand.
Two Palestinians were arrested and two injured [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu]
Israeli police said they entered the compound on Friday to disperse a “violent” crowd who stayed behind at the end of morning prayers.
Palestinians have long feared Israel plans to take over or carve up the Al-Aqsa Mosque site.
Israeli authorities say they are committed to maintaining the status quo, but in recent years large groups of nationalist and religious Jews have regularly visited the compound with police escorts, in what Palestinians see as a provocation.
Palestinians and Israelis have seen an increase in violence over the past month, with Israeli forces stepping up raids, shootings and arrests in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian attackers targeting people in Israeli towns.
Since March 22, four attacks by Palestinians have taken place in four Israeli towns, killing 14 people, while Israel intensified its raids on Palestinian towns and villages, leading to violence and arrests.
During the same period, 16 Palestinians were killed.
Palestinians say the recent outbreak of violence stems from frustration with Israeli policies towards them, the continued occupation of Palestinian territories and weak Palestinian leadership.
Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip took to the streets on Friday to protest Israeli forces breaking into the Al-Aqsa Mosque to show their support for the people of the occupied West Bank.
Last year, raids by Israeli security forces during the holy month of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque further exacerbated tensions, and four days later an 11-day Israeli attack on Gaza began, allegedly in response to rockets fired at Israel by Hamas.