Palestinians clashed with Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Islamic concentration camp in Jerusalem just before dawn on Friday as thousands gathered to pray during the holy month of Ramadan. Doctors say at least 152 Palestinians are injured.
This holy place, sacred to Jews and Muslims, has often been a hotbed of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and tensions were high during the recent wave of violence. The clashes in the area last year helped spark an 11-day war with the Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
The conflict comes at a very critical time. Ramadan this year coincides with the Passover, a major Jewish holiday that lasts a week starting at sundown, and the holy Christian church, culminating in Easter Sunday. The holidays are expected to bring tens of thousands of faithful people to the Old City of Jerusalem, home to the great sanctuaries of all three religions.
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Hours after the riots, police announced that they had stopped the violence and arrested "hundreds" of the suspects. They said the mosque was reopened and Friday afternoon prayers would be held as usual. Tens of thousands of people were expected.
Israeli authorities said they had previously held talks with Muslim leaders to ensure calmness and allow for prayers, but Palestinian youths threw stones at police, sparking violence. Palestinian witnesses, who did not want to be identified for security reasons, said a group of Palestinians pelted stones at police, who stormed in, extinguishing the blaze.
Videos circulating on the Internet show Palestinians throwing stones and explosives and police firing tear gas and grenades exploding on a spanade around the mosque. Some have shown worshipers closing in on the mosque.
Later that morning, Israeli police entered the mosque and arrested the people. Israeli security forces do not usually enter the building, and when they do, Palestinians are seen as a major threat.
Paramedics at the Palestine Red Crescent said they had treated 152 people, many of whom had been injured by rubber bullets or grenades, or beaten with sticks. Endowment said one of the security guards in the area was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet.
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Israeli police said three police officers were injured in the "stone-throwing" and two were taken to the scene for treatment.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said dozens of masked men carrying Palestinian and Hamas flags marched before dawn on Friday and collected stones and other items in anticipation of the unrest.
"Police were forced to enter the stadiums to disperse the crowd and remove stones and stones, in order to prevent further violence," he wrote on Twitter.
Police said they waited until the prayer was over and crowds scattered. In a statement, he said the crowds first threw stones at the Western Wall, a nearby Jewish shrine, forcing them to take action.
The Palestinian people view any major Al-Aqsa police deployment as a major issue.
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Israeli national security minister Omer Barlev, who heads the police force, said Israel had "no interest" in violence in the sanctuary but that the police had been forced to deal with "violent structures" that attacked with stones and metal. He said Israel was committed to freedom of worship for Jews and Muslims alike.
The mosque is the third most holy place in Islam. It was built on a mountaintop in the Old City of Jerusalem which is the most holy place to the Jews, which they called the Temple Mount because it was the site of Jewish temples in ancient times. It has been the epitome of Israeli-Palestinian violence for decades and has been the epitome of the Palestinian intifada of 2000-2005, or rebellion.
Israel captured east of Jerusalem, the home of Al-Aqsa and other great shrines, in the 1967 war and included an unknown movement around the world. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city to be the capital of an independent future, including the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel also captured during the war almost 55 years ago.
Tensions have risen sharply in recent weeks following a series of attacks on Palestinians that killed 14 people inside Israel. Israel has created a wave of arrests and military operations across the West Bank, beginning to clash with Palestinians.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said a 17-year-old boy died Friday morning from gunshot wounds during a fight with Israeli forces in Jenin, West Bank, yesterday.
At least 25 Palestinians have been killed in recent violence, according to Associated Press figures, most of them have been attacked or involved in conflicts, but also an unarmed woman and lawyer who appears to have been killed. error.
Weeks of protests and riots in Jerusalem during Ramadan last year culminated in an 11-day war with Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Israel had lifted its borders and taken other steps to try to defuse tensions ahead of Ramadan, but attacks and military invasions have created another cycle of unrest.
Hamas has criticized the so-called "brutal attack" on Al-Aqsa officials by Israeli forces, saying that Israel would bear "all consequences." He called on all Palestinians to "stand near our people in Jerusalem."
Earlier this week, Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza called on Palestinians to camp at the Al-Aqsa mosque over the weekend. Palestinian people have long feared that Israel plans to take over the territory or divide it.
Israeli authorities say they are committed to maintaining the status quo, but in recent years nationalistic and religious Jews have visited the area in large numbers.