Clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli security forces left more than a hundred injured on Friday morning.
In the Old City of Jerusalem this Friday, people come to pray or fight. For Muslims, it is the second Friday of Ramadan. Catholic and Protestant Christians will celebrate Good Friday by following the Stations of the Cross. For Jews, it is the eve of Passover, the Jewish Passover. They must meet in the evening in front of the Wailing Wall.
Three buses unload their Muslim faithful not far from the Damascus Gate, the privileged access to the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. They are women or elderly men, who are not affected by the access restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on young people under 50 years of age. In the distance, on the esplanade, the detonations of stun and tear gas canisters still resonate.
The tension had been rising for several days. A wave of attacks hit Israel; another, in retaliation, swept through the West Bank. In three weeks, 14 dead on one side, 21 on the other. So, on Thursday, Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, called on Muslims to come by the hundreds of thousands to the esplanade to protect it from potential incursions by Jewish settlers, whose leaders are increasing their provocations.
“We will defend Al-Aqsa”
According to the Israeli channel N12, at 4 a.m., young men organized a march, carrying the flags of Palestine and the Islamist party. While some collected projectiles in anticipation of the day’s battle, others allegedly fired fireworks and threw stones at the security forces, who charged the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the end of the prayer of dawn.
At 7 a.m., descending the steps of the Damascus Gate, all seems calm. The Muslims, carpet on the shoulder, go to the mosque. But this crowd is mixed with young Palestinians. One of them, drawn features and dressed in black, whispers: “We will defend Al-Aqsa. For his honor and that of our martyrs.” They face the sharp eye of the Israeli security forces, deployed en masse in every corner of the Old City. The faithful who have come to be prayed for are directed to Al-Aqsa, the young people diverted to the exit, by the Via Dolorosa.
This is where it all comes together. Muslims for the mosque, Christians who came to do the Stations of the Cross, young people seeking confrontation, police and soldiers with their arms and truncheons. In the Convent of the Flagellation, one of the stages of the Stations of the Cross located a few streets from the esplanade, three Filipinos read their prayers hastily on their mobile phones and move away towards the Holy Sepulchre.
Wounded evacuated by cart
Outside, Palestinians watch on TikTok the attacks of the morning, where there are calls for a “Day of Rage” to protest against the assault. They are bullied by the police towards the Lions Gate, the eastern exit from Jerusalem. The lane is littered with rocks and metal-jacketed rubber bullet cartridges, used by the Israeli security forces.
Two young people go down the street. One of them box. His left leg is affected. Under the scratched skin, a large bump: the result of a shot from one of these bullets. The man got into an ambulance. Another contemplates the spectacle lamenting. Mouthanna, 43, a Palestinian from Israel from the central city of Zemer: “I came for the dawn prayer. The security forces charged at 6 a.m. with grenades and gas. The police should open the doors for us, but they start a war on a day of prayer,” he says, hoodie, sparse beard, showing more weariness than anger. He is pessimistic for the rest of the day: “With so many police and soldiers, it will degenerate.”
The sun is now up. The walls take on a blond hue. Groups of young Palestinians descend and pass Christian pilgrims going up. The last wounded of the morning charge are brought in carts, more manageable in the labyrinth of the Old City. A man is unconscious. Another does not catch his breath until he enters the metallic cabin of the ambulance. A young woman, covered in a blanket, moans as she is loaded onto the stretcher.
The charge left 60 injured, according to a Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic. The balance sheet would be around 100 wounded on the Palestinian side. The pilgrims hesitate before embarking on the path marked by the traces of the clashes. A group of Germans, bags on their backs and bottles in their hands, listen to a priest in a cassock sporting an immaculate white collar. He comments on the beginning of the Stations of the Cross. In the distance, a church bell strikes 8 o’clock. Above the worshipers, on the rampart, an Israeli soldier plays nervously with the trigger of his submachine gun.