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Israeli police have entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as worshippers gathered for early morning prayers, two days after detaining tons of on the web site in one other raid on the mosque.
Israeli authorities mentioned they entered the compound on Sunday to facilitate routine visits by far-right Jews to the holy web site and that Palestinians had stockpiled stones and arrange obstacles within the compound.
The police cleared Palestinians out of the sprawling esplanade outdoors the mosque, whereas dozens remained inside.
Palestinian medical employees mentioned not less than 19 individuals had been injured. Three individuals had been transferred to the hospital after being crushed or hit by rubber-coated bullets, based on The Palestinian Crimson Cross. The organisation mentioned it was prevented from accessing the compound however managed to help the injured close to Bab al-Asbat.
9 individuals had been arrested, police mentioned, after Palestinians smashed the home windows of two buses carrying Jewish guests to the location, flippantly injuring a number of of them.
Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, mentioned the raid befell forward of a three-hour timeframe throughout which non-Muslims are allowed to go to the compound, the third-holiest in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who consult with it because the Temple Mount.
Tensions had been excessive after the far-right Jewish group Return to Temple Mount provided a money prize to anybody who went into Al-Aqsa Mosque and sacrificed a goat – a Jewish spiritual ritual that’s prohibited contained in the mosque and that might represent an additional provocation.
“This didn’t occur but it surely went viral on social media,” Ghoneim mentioned, including that it contributed to an increase in tensions.
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday laid the blame on Israel for the implications of the present rigidity at Al-Aqsa.
“We name on the US administration to interrupt its silence and cease this aggression that can inflame your entire area,” authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh mentioned in an announcement carried by state information company Wafa.
The Palestinian Overseas Ministry additionally condemned the Israeli escalation on the flashpoint web site. A ministry assertion mentioned the Israeli escalation flouted an Arab and Islamic backlash and was “a continuation of [Israeli] plans to Judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
The top of Hamas warned Israel that “Al-Aqsa is ours and ours alone”.
“Our individuals have the suitable to entry it and pray in it, and we is not going to bow all the way down to (Israeli) repression and terror,” Ismail Haniyeh mentioned in an announcement.
In the meantime, Pope Francis on Sunday referred to as without spending a dime entry to the holy websites in Jerusalem as he delivered his annual Easter tackle, which this yr coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish pageant of Passover.
“Could Israelis, Palestinians and all who dwell within the Holy Metropolis, along with the pilgrims, expertise the fantastic thing about peace, dwell in fraternity and revel in free entry to the Holy Locations in mutual respect for the rights of every,” he mentioned.
‘Final stand’
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, mentioned the raids by Israeli forces into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – often known as the Noble Sanctuary – is because of Israel’s “colonial machinations”.
“It clearly has a objective in thoughts and that’s denying the Palestinians any sense of sovereignty over their most sacred web site, which is the Noble Sanctuary,” he mentioned, talking from London.
Within the face of whole management of Palestinian life by the Israeli occupation, the Palestinians regard the compound as their final stand, Bishara continued.
“Every part has been taken away from them – the land, the olive groves, their houses, their dignity,” he mentioned.
“Israel took management over all the pieces that’s Palestine, from the river to the ocean excluding the Noble Sanctuary. Palestinians proceed to assume that not less than they will have that image of Palestinian sovereignty within the Previous Metropolis of Jerusalem.”
Greater than 300 Palestinians had been detained on Friday in Al-Aqsa in what rights watchdogs say was the most important en masse arrest over the course of 1 hour and in a single location in additional than 20 years.
At the very least 158 Palestinians had been injured within the ensuing violence.
Movies circulating on-line on Friday confirmed police firing tear fuel and stun grenades and Palestinians throwing stones again.
Others confirmed worshippers barricading themselves contained in the mosque amid what gave the impression to be clouds of tear fuel.
However Palestinian cameraman Rami al-Khatib, who witnessed the raid, mentioned: “They [Israeli forces] brutally emptied the compound. They had been attacking the mosque workers, regular individuals, elders, younger individuals”.
“There have been many injured individuals, they fired rubber bullets inside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. They had been beating everybody, even the paramedics, they hit them,” mentioned al-Khatib, who suffered a damaged hand.
Israeli police mentioned they entered the compound on Friday to interrupt up a “violent” crowd that remained on the finish of the morning prayers.
Palestinians have lengthy feared that Israel plans to take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound or partition it.
Israeli authorities say they’re dedicated to sustaining the established order, however lately massive teams of nationalist and spiritual Jews have commonly visited the location with police escorts, one thing the Palestinians view as a provocation.
Palestinians and Israelis have witnessed a rise in violence over the previous month, with Israeli forces stepping up raids, shootings and arrests throughout the occupied West Financial institution and Palestinian attackers concentrating on individuals in Israeli cities.
4 assaults by Palestinians in 4 Israeli cities have taken place since March 22, killing 14 individuals, whereas Israel has elevated its raids on Palestinian cities and villages, resulting in violence and arrests.
At the very least 22 Palestinians have been killed in the identical interval.
Palestinians say the most recent outbreak of violence stems from frustration over Israeli insurance policies in the direction of them, the continued occupation of the Palestinian territories, and weak Palestinian management.
A whole lot of Palestinians within the Gaza Strip took to the streets to protest Israeli forces breaking into the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, in a present of help for individuals residing within the occupied West Financial institution.
Final yr, raids of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli safety forces throughout the holy month of Ramadan heightened tensions additional and, 4 days later, an 11-day Israeli assault on Gaza started, ostensibly in response to rockets fired by Hamas in the direction of Israel.
Supply: Al Jazeera and Information Companies
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