JERUSALEM (Reuters) – At least 152 Palestinians were injured on Friday in clashes with Israeli security forces near Al Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported on Friday.
While Israel has just suffered several deadly attacks in recent weeks from lone Arab assailants, tension is all the more acute in Jerusalem as the Jewish Passover holiday coincides this week with Ramadan, the holy month of Muslims.
The Israeli police explained in a press release that they intervened on the esplanade of the Mosques, called Temple Mount by the Jews, to disperse an aggressive crowd who remained there after Friday morning prayers. However, she did not enter the Al Aksa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.
The Israeli intervention was launched following the throwing of stones and firecrackers against the police and towards the Wailing Wall, a place of prayer for the Jews located below the esplanade of the Mosques.
The more than 152 wounded identified by the Palestinian Red Crescent were mainly affected by tear gas canisters and rubber bullets.
“We are working to restore calm, on the Temple Mount and everywhere in Israel. At the same time, we are preparing for all scenarios and the security forces are ready for any eventuality,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.
A spokesman said on Twitter that hundreds of Palestinians had been arrested.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister commented on the clashes that took place on the esplanade of the Mosques by declaring “to hold Israel fully and directly responsible for this crime and its consequences”.
Nabil Abou Roudeina, spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority which administers part of the occupied West Bank, for his part considered that “immediate intervention by the international community was necessary to stop the Israeli aggression against the Al Aksa mosque in order to prevent the situation from getting out of control”.
The Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, condemned the intervention of the Israeli police and declared that the Jewish state “will take responsibility for the consequences”.
Jordan, whose Hashemite monarchy is guardian of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem, condemned the Israeli police intervention on the esplanade of the Mosques, denouncing a “flagrant violation” of the 1994 peace treaty, which entrusts the management of these holy places to a religious foundation under Jordanian control.
(Report Sinan Abu Mayzer, Ammar Awad and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Henriette Chacar in Jaffa; French version Jean Terzian, Bertrand Boucey and Myriam Rivet, edited by Jean-Michel Bélot)