JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s old city early Wednesday morning and fired stun grenades at Palestinians after violence broke out during the sensitive holiday season. Palestinian militants in Gaza launched rockets in southern Israel and repeated Israeli airstrikes.
The fighting, which took place while the Muslims marked the holiday month of Ramadan and the Jews prepared for the start of Passover, raised the fear of a massive conflagration. The grounds of Jerusalem, crowded with believers during Ramadan, were calming down.
The mosque sits on a hill sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and there are conflicting claims about it, including an 11-day bloody war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic extremist group that controls Gaza. It has already escalated into violence. Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam and is located on what is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
Palestinian militant groups have warned of another confrontation, but a Palestinian official said Palestinian officials were in contact with officials in Egypt, Jordan, the United States and the United Nations to ease the situation. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.
Netanyahu reiterated on Wednesday that he is committed to upholding the long-standing agreement at the compound. He described it as an “extremist” that hampered. During normal visiting hours on Wednesday morning, more than 100 religious Jews passed through the site and a small crowd of Muslims gathered around them, shouting “God is great!”
By longstanding agreement, Jews are allowed to visit this place, but not to pray there. However, such visits have increased in recent years and often cause tension, especially since some Jews are often seen praying in silence.
Hundreds of Palestinians barricaded themselves in the mosque and prayed overnight after about 80,000 worshipers attended an evening prayer at the mosque on Tuesday.Religious Jews not offering animal sacrifices Some people want to Israeli police moved to the mosque after they refused to leave. Israeli police said “several law-breaking youths and masked agitators” brought firecrackers, sticks and stones into the mosque, chanted insults and locked the front door. “After repeated and lengthy attempts to evict them with fruitless discussions, police forcefully entered the premises,” police said.
Moayad Abu Mayaleh, 23, said he and hundreds of others blocked the doors of the mosque to prevent police from entering before they broke in.
Palestinian militants responded by firing a salvo of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel and sounding air raid sirens throughout the region as residents prepare for the start of the week-long Passover holiday.
The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have called on the Palestinian population of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel to rally around Al-Aqsa his mosque and confront the Israeli army. Palestinians must “prepare for the inevitable confrontation in the coming days,” said Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad Al-Nahra.
As violence erupted in Jerusalem, the Israeli army reported fighting in Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank. Residents of Beit Umar, near the exile city of Hebron, are said to have burned tires and threw rocks and explosives at soldiers. A soldier was shot dead by an armed suspect who successfully escaped.
Later in the day, sources said Palestinians opened fire at a checkpoint near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, but there were no casualties.
