Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police injured 42 people on Friday at the Masjid Esplanade (29), a hotbed of tension in central Jerusalem, after more than a month of violence in the Occupied Territories and Israel.
Noting that 12 people were injured on Friday morning, the Palestinian Red Crescent announced on Friday morning that “42 people were injured in clashes with the occupying forces on the Mesplanade Esplanade”.
It was stated that 22 of the 42 injured people were taken to the Jerusalem hospital, but none of them were in serious condition.
Israeli police said security forces agents were “agitating” as they threw stones and fireworks in the direction of the Wailing Wall, the holiest place of worship for Jews in the same compound.
The statement said the officers “used tools to disperse the riots” in the response. Eyewitnesses and AFP reporters observed the use of tear gas and rubber bullets.
After thousands of people gathered to pray on the last Friday of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims and will end early next week, relative calm enveloped the place.
According to an AFP journalist, some carried Palestinian and Hamas flags.
Tensions have risen recently in the Mosques Esplanade, which is known as the third holiest place for Muslims and the holiest place for Jews, and which uses the name “Temple Mountain”.
To climb
In the last two weeks, approximately 300 Palestinians have been injured in clashes in the area located in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Masjid Esplanade is located in the eastern part of Jerusalem, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967 and later annexed. The holy site is administered by Jordan, but access is controlled by the Jewish state.
The riots arose against the backdrop of escalating violence, following four attacks in Israel since the end of March that left 14 people dead, including an Arab-Israeli police officer and two Ukrainians. Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, carried out two attacks in Tel-Aviv.
Since then, 26 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs (including the attackers) have died in clashes with Israeli forces conducting operations in the occupied West Bank.
These clashes took place when the “Jerusalem Day” (Jerusalem in Arabic), initiated by Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, is celebrated on Friday.
Thousands of people participated in the demonstration organized to support the Palestinians in Iran, Israel’s great enemy.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran supports and supports the Palestinian resistance” […] and we condemn the treacherous move to normalize relations [com Israel]Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on television.
Provocation
On Thursday night, leaders of the Palestinian movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad close to Iran held a demonstration at a stadium in Gaza to celebrate the day, insisting on the need to “defend” Jerusalem and the Mosques Esplanade.
General Hossein Salami, Commander of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran’s ideological army, attended the event via video conference and stated that “the State of Israel will be defeated”.
The presence of large numbers of Jews on the Esplanade of the Mosques, and the mobilization of security forces in the sanctuary, during the month of Ramadan, under certain conditions and at certain times, but without the possibility of prayer. The site was considered a “provocation” by the Palestinians and many countries in the region.
“Jerusalem will remain at the center of the conflict with the enemy,” said Hamas, which today administers the Palestinian enclave in Gaza. They also declared that “the enemy’s projects of Judaization, desecration and division” were doomed to failure.
But the head of Israeli diplomacy, Yair Lapid, said that Israel intends to preserve the status quo of the Mosques Esplanade in Jerusalem. He said recent police interventions on the scene were “justified”.
source: Noticias
