Referential image. AFP/NI
The intervention of the Israeli police in the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem provoked a barrage of international criticism on Wednesday and an escalation of rocket fire from Gaza and Israeli shelling in full celebrations of the Jewish Passover and the Muslim month of Ramadan.
The intervention of the Israeli riot police in the third holiest place in Islam resulted in 350 detainees, according to the police, and 37 injured, according to the balance of the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Again on Wednesday, a crowd of Muslims gathered in and around the mosque for the nightly Ramadan prayer. According to the Israeli police, “dozens of insurgents, some masked, fired fireworks and stones inside the mosque.”
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Police prevented them from entrenching themselves and dispersed them, allowing a return to calm, he said in a statement. Israeli forces blocked access to the site, AFP journalists found.
On Wednesday night, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, Nabil Abou Roudeina, warned that the new “attack” on the mosque signaled the Israeli government’s desire to “precipitate the region into instability.”
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, had denounced after the first incidents “an unprecedented crime.”
«Extremists»
The temple is located in the Esplanade of the Mosques, in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the Holy City occupied and annexed by Israel since 1967.
The Esplanade is also built on what Jews call the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, said he was “shocked and dismayed” by the “violence and beatings” by the security forces, his spokesman said.
The US government also declared itself “extremely concerned” and called for restraint on both sides.
A 74-year-old Palestinian, Abdelkarim Ikraiem, recounted that the Israeli forces entered the place “breaking doors and windows” while the faithful were praying.
They carried “sticks, weapons, tear gas grenades and smoke bombs” and beat worshipers, he said.
The Israeli police denounced in a statement the action of “several young outlaws and masked agitators who introduced fireworks, sticks and stones” into the place of worship.
“The leaders barricaded themselves inside for several hours [después de la última oración vespertina] to disturb public order and desecrate the mosque”, while chanting “slogans that incite hatred and violence”, he added.
Police released two videos. One shows explosions of what appear to be fireworks inside the sanctuary and people throwing stones. Another shows riot officers advancing towards the mosque, shielding themselves from rocket fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that security forces were “forced to act to restore order” in the face of “extremists.”
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The Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein Al Sheikh, stated that “the level of brutality [de la policía israelí] demands urgent Palestinian, Arab and international action.”
Jordan, which administers Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites, condemned the “assault” on the mosque and called on Israeli forces to withdraw immediately.
“Trampling on the Al Aqsa Mosque is our red line,” warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while the Arab League organized an extraordinary meeting and warned against any “provocation” that could hurt “the feelings of believers.”
Morocco, which normalized its relations with Israel at the end of 2020, “firmly” condemned the intervention and called to “respect the legal, religious and historical status” of Jerusalem and the holy places.
The clashes in Al Aqsa sparked an exchange of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, with rocket fire from the Palestinian territory and shelling from the Israeli side.
On Wednesday night, two more rockets were fired from Gaza.
The Israeli army indicated that one of them fell on the Gaza side and that another did so “in the sector of the border barrier” that separates both territories.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified so far this year. The violence has left nearly 110 dead since January and resumed last weekend after the relative calm that had reigned since the start of Ramadan on March 23.
