OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Fresh clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Al-Aqsa mosque compound wounded 42 people on the last Friday of Ramadan, following weeks of violence at the flashpoint religious site. The Palestinian Red Crescent, which gave the toll, said no one was seriously hurt but 22 people were taken to hospital.
Israeli police released footage that showed young men on the compound hurling stones and fireworks in Friday’s early hours. Officers entered the site at dawn.
A police statement said they went in to contain “rioters and lawbreakers” some of whom were trying to throw stones down towards the Western Wall, the sacred Jewish site below Al-Aqsa.
Police said officers used “riot dispersal means” to contain the unrest and that two people had been arrested, one for throwing stones and the other one for “inciting the mob”.
An AFP journalist said Israeli police fired rubbet-coated bullets while a witness said they also used tear gas.
A uneasy calm had been restored at the compound following the unrest that surrounded morning prayers, but tensions remained high.
Dozens wounded in clashes at Al-Aqsa mosque compound
In the early afternoon, a crowd of Muslim worshippers gathered at Al-Aqsa. Some people waved Palestinian flags and the colours of the Gaza Strip-based Hamas militant group, an AFP journalist said.
Over the past two weeks, nearly 300 Palestinians have been hurt in clashes at Al-Aqsa, Islam’s third-holiest site which is also the most holy site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.
The site is located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed, in a move not recognised by most of the international community.
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