Worshipers praying in the courtyards of the sanctuary.
For the second night, the Israeli police stormed the grounds of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, Thursday morning, to evacuate Palestinians who it said had “barricaded themselves inside”, which led to clashes between the police and dozens of Palestinian worshipers who had barricaded themselves inside the mosque.
On Thursday, Palestinian militants fired rockets into southern Israel for a second day, the Israeli military said, after an Israeli police raid on the Al-Aqsa mosque triggered cross-border gunfire, raising fears of further escalation.
According to reports, dozens of Jews entered, on Thursday morning, the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Mughrabi Gate, under heavy security by the Israeli forces, as part of the celebrations of the Jewish Passover holiday, which continues until next Wednesday.
Israeli police and special units intensified their deployment in the courtyards of the mosque, to secure tours for Jews, while Palestinian sources said that the Israeli police prevented hundreds of worshipers of Muslim men under the age of forty from performing the dawn prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and this forced them to pray at its gates and in the alleys of the town. Old Jerusalem.
The Jewish organizations, including the “Temple Mount Trustees”, has called for the organization of mass visits to Al-Aqsa during the Jewish Passover holiday.
Palestinian sources had accused the Israeli forces of storming the mosque during the past two nights, which led to clashes with numbers of worshipers. The sources pointed out that this caused injuries among the Palestinians, in addition to the arrest of a number of them.
At the same time, the Israeli army said that seven rockets were fired at dawn today, Thursday, from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, indicating that five of them exploded in the air, and two others headed towards the sea, and that the Iron Dome system did not activate.
There were no reports of casualties in the early morning missile attack from the besieged Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
On Wednesday, the Israeli police raided Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Al-Aqsa Mosque: The moment the Israeli forces clashed with the worshipers
The raid, which took place during Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, drew widespread condemnation in the Arab world and concern in the White House.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the United Nations Security Council will hold a closed session Thursday to discuss the raid, which the Israeli authorities said was an attempt to prevent violence through what it claims is the “cleansing” of the groups holed up inside that use weapons, stones and explosives to plan a breach of peace, as described.
At least 12 Palestinians were injured, and images of soldiers beating worshipers inside Islam’s third holiest site were shared on social media.
Gaza militants fired rockets into Israel soon after, prompting Israeli air strikes.
image copyright Reuters
What did Israel say?
The Israeli police had said that they carried out the raid after what they described as “inciters” barricaded themselves inside the mosque and threw fireworks, sticks and stones at the police, as she described it.
And the police added in a statement that it “arrested and deported more than 350 people who barricaded themselves violently” inside the mosque, which is located in the Old City of Jerusalem.
On Wednesday, dozens of Jews entered the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the first day of the Jewish Passover holiday, under tight security from the Israeli police.
The Islamic Endowments Department in the city of Jerusalem said that the Jews entered Al-Aqsa in the form of groups, each of which included 50 people, and carried out tours in the courtyards of the sanctuary, and received explanations about the “Temple”, and performed Talmudic rituals in the eastern side of the squares and in front of the Dome of the Rock, before they left. They leave the place on the side of Bab al-Silsilah.
The international and Arab reactions followed the Israeli police forces’ storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the clashes that erupted afterwards between the police and dozens of Palestinians, which ranged from expressions of concern to condemnation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the situation resulted from what he described as “extremists” barricading themselves inside the mosque, in possession of weapons, stones and firecrackers.
“Israel is committed to preserving freedom of worship, free entry for all religions, and the status quo on the Temple Mount, and will not allow violent extremists to change that,” he said in a statement.
Palestinian sources said that 14 people were injured after the police used stun grenades and rubber bullets to evacuate the holed-up group.
At least nine rockets were later fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, and sirens were heard near Sderot.
The Israeli army said it intercepted five rockets and “four more fell in open areas”.
No group has claimed responsibility for the shooting so far, but Hamas is believed to have approved the shooting.
However, neither Hamas nor the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were instead claimed by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Resistance Committee.
The Israeli military says it holds Hamas responsible for all attacks from Gaza.
The deputy head of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, warned that “the attack on Islamic sanctities will have a heavy price, and we will burn the ground under their (Israeli) feet.”
The Israeli army later said its warplanes had targeted the militants’ positions.
image copyright Reuters
The Palestinian presidency warned of the consequences of what is happening.
How did the clashes start?
Clashes began in occupied East Jerusalem after a number of Palestinian worshipers barricaded themselves in the mosque after Tarawih prayers.
And the footage, which was filmed from inside the mosque, shows the firecrackers fired by the people holed up.
The PRCS later said that Israeli forces had prevented its paramedics from reaching the mosque.
Palestinian activists had called on Muslims earlier to barricade themselves in the mosque and protect it, after reports were received that Jewish worshipers wanted to slaughter offerings of goats in the sanctuary on the occasion of Easter, which begins on Wednesday.
Hamas called on the Palestinians in the West Bank to “go collectively to Al-Aqsa Mosque to defend it.”
Reuters news agency quoted an eyewitness named Fahmy Abbas, who is one of the worshipers in the mosque, as saying that the police fired “in the yard of the eastern part of the complex, tear gas and stun grenades, the scene I cannot describe.”
He added, “The police stormed the mosque and started beating everyone. They detained people and put the youth on the ground and continued to beat them.”
As for the Israeli police, they said: “After many continuous attempts to remove individuals from the mosque using dialogue, the police were forced to enter the compound to remove the individuals.”
The police statement added, “During the time they were in the compound, the police officers were subjected to stone throwing and many firecrackers were detonated inside the mosque by many lawbreakers and rioters.”
The police reported that two of their personnel were injured.
image copyright Raffi Berg
“The police did a good job,” hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said in a statement.
Thousands of Palestinian worshipers spent Tuesday night in the mosque compound, amid fears of possible clashes with Jewish visitors to the site they revere and which they say is the Temple Mount, the site of the two ancient temples of Judaism.
Under the long-standing “status quo” arrangement governing the area, which Israel says it maintains, non-Muslims can visit the area but only Muslims are allowed to pray in the mosque compound.
But Jewish visitors have begun to pray increasingly publicly at the site, in defiance of the rules.
Tensions escalated at the beginning of this year between the two sides, and the conflict claimed the lives of more than 90 Palestinians and 15 Israelis.
The Haram al-Sharif complex in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem witnessed clashes and violent incidents between Palestinians and Israelis, especially during the month of Ramadan, which attracts tens of thousands of worshipers to Al-Aqsa.
The new violence comes around the middle of Ramadan, as Jews prepare to celebrate Passover from Wednesday evening.
Israel is still reeling from weeks of domestic tension over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hotly contested plans to rein in Supreme Court powers, and the clashes have intensified an already frantic political atmosphere.
Over the past year, Israeli forces have carried out thousands of arrests in the West Bank and killed more than 250 Palestinians, while more than 40 Israelis and three Ukrainians have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
image copyright Reuters
reactions
The United States expressed its “grave concern” about the violence that erupted inside Al-Aqsa Mosque.
White House spokesman for national security John Kirby said the United States urged all sides to avoid further escalation.
As for the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, he said that the latter was “shocked and dismayed” by the pictures he saw of Israeli security forces beating people in the mosque.
For its part, the Arab League condemned on Wednesday what it described as the Israeli forces’ storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, attacking worshipers and those in retreat inside, and arresting about 400 Palestinians.
The permanent delegates of the League held an emergency meeting on Wednesday at the invitation of Jordan and in coordination between the Egyptian and Palestinian sides.
The delegates issued a statement holding Israel responsible for what results from those “crimes and measures that undermine freedom of worship” in the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, according to the university’s statement.
The statement also called for coordination between the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to protect Jerusalem.
And the Secretary-General of the University, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, previously issued a statement in which he said that these behaviors, which he described as irresponsible in the holy places, affect the feelings of millions of Muslims around the world, especially in the month of Ramadan.
Egypt also condemned the Israeli security forces’ storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque at dawn on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Israel to immediately stop these attacks that terrify the worshipers, and Egypt described these scenes as abhorrent and reprehensible.
The Palestinian Authority condemned what happened and described Israel’s attacks on the worshipers as a “crime”.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said, “We warn the occupation not to cross the red lines in the holy places, which will lead to a big explosion.”
The Waqf Authority, the Jordanian organization that runs the complex, described the police’s actions as “a flagrant attack on the identity and function of the mosque as a place of worship for Muslims alone,” as it put it.
