Clashes between Palestinians and Israelis injured more than 20 people on Sunday and near the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, became the scene of violent clashes on Friday.
Early Sunday, hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators began to collect stones on the esplanade shortly before Jews arrived who could visit this place, which is considered the holiest in Judaism, at certain times and under certain conditions, police said.
Israeli security forces entered the Al-Masjid compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, to expel these demonstrators and restore ordersaid police as witnesses and rescuers reported a dozen Palestinians were injured in these clashes.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported 19 Palestinian wounded, five of whom were evacuated to local hospitals, noting that some of the wounded were hit by rubber bullets.
The incidents come as Christian Easter celebrations are held on Sundays, as well as prayers for the Passover, Passover, and Muslim month of Ramadan in the Old City of Jerusalem, the crossroads of three monotheistic religions.
At the same time, near the Old City, located in the eastern part of Jerusalem that has been occupied by Israel since 1967, Palestinian youths pelted buses carrying Israeli civilians, including minors, according to police.
Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Hospital reported seven minor injuries from stone throwing aimed at buses traveling near the Western Wall, the holiest place of prayer in Jewish tradition, while Israeli police reported 18 arrests.
Al Aqsa [nom donné aussi en arabe à l’esplanade des Mosquées, NDLR] is ours, and ours only, and the Jews have absolutely no right to itsaid in a press release Ismaïl Haniyeh, head of the political wing of Hamas, the Palestinian armed Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip.
Jerusalem is at the center of the battle [israélo-palestinien, NDLR]and we will continue to defend it in an open battle against the invadersadded Mr. Haniyeh, while Hussein el-Sheikh, a tenor of Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, called on the international community to end in outright aggression against the esplanade of the Mosques.
In the Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem, mosques have called on worshipers to go to the esplanade, according to journalists fromAFP. And in the Gaza Strip, more than a dozen rockets were fired Sunday morning into the Mediterranean Sea, according to media close to Hamas.
Friday morning, after weeks of tension associated with the attack by two Palestinians in the Tel Aviv area and Israeli operations in counterterrorism in the occupied West Bank, clashes erupted between police and demonstrators on the Esplanade des Mosques, where the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are located.
Israeli forces notably entered the Al-Aqsa mosque during these clashes that injured more than 150 Palestinians and provoked intense condemnation from Muslim countries.
Jordan, which oversees the esplanade of the Mosques, has blamed Israel for the new escalation of violence.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned the disruption of Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa mosque and the expulsion of the faithful [musulmans] by force to allow the entry of extremists [juifs] under their protection.
Sunday, during the traditional blessing Urbi and orbi at the Vatican, Pope Francis pleaded for access Free in the holy places in Jerusalem. May Israelis, Palestinians and all inhabitants of the Holy City, including pilgrims, experience the beauty of peace.said the sovereign pontiff.
L ‘UN called for a de-escalation to prevent tensions in Jerusalem from turning into war, like last year, between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in Gaza, a territory under Israeli blockade located about 80 km from Jerusalem, and Israel.
Source: Radio-Canada