Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters resumed on Friday at the Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem. Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the clashes broke out on the esplanade of the Aksha Mosque. The Aksa Mosque is located in the Old City of Jerusalem, in what is called the Temple Mount by the Jews and by Al Musam Asharif, the Muslim Shrine of the Noble Shrine. The mosque complex is the third most important Muslim shrine after Mecca and Medina and the most significant shrine of Judaism, home to the Jerusalem temple described in the Bible. “Hundreds of people were stabbed by police with rocks and fireballs,” Rosenfeld said, noting that police had responded and started dispersing the crowd. Reporters from the AFP news agency said the clashes continued and police used rubber bullets and noise grenades against unarmed Palestinians, including a group of men who had simply spoken. One of them had a prayer mat over his shoulder. Two weeks ago, a similar clash in the Aqsa Mosque complex and threats by Jewish colonists to evict Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem led to hostilities between Hamas and the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. Since May 10, some 230 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, and rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have killed 12 people in Israel. On Friday night, both sides agreed on a ceasefire. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 21 people, two of whom were hospitalized, were injured in the clashes at the Aksa Mosque today. The Palestinian Authority condemned “the invasion of the Asa Mosque by Israeli occupying forces following Friday’s prayers and their attack on believers.” In the West Bank, after Friday’s prayers, hundreds of people gathered in several cities to mark the cessation of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. The Red Crescent reported that in several places, Israeli security forces used rubber and real bullets, noise grenades and tear gas against crowds, injuring dozens of people. Source: LETA
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