The man killed on Saturday was Mohammad Khaled al-Osaibi, 26, from Houra.
Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man at the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, raising fears of more violence.
The man killed on Saturday was 26 years old. Mohammad Khaled al-Osaibi from Houra, a Bedouin Arab village in southern Israel. The incident took place around midnight near the Chain Gate, an access point to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem. police saying.
Palestinian worshipers at the entrance to the site on Saturday said the man was shot at least 10 times by police after he tried to stop them from harassing a woman on her way to the holy site.
Police alleged that al-Osaibi tried to take a gun from an officer and fired in a fight.
Hours after the incident, the muddy stone alley leading to the compound was still smeared with blood.
Israeli police have increased their forces in the area as tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers from Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank gather for Ramadan prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
On Friday, more than 200,000 Palestinians gathered for midday prayers at the compound, which passed peacefully.
‘Many shots’
Noureddine, a 17-year-old who lived in the neighborhood and declined to give his last name for fear of retaliation, said he saw al-Osaibi confront police who stopped a worshiper on her way to the mosque.
Al-Osaibi’s relationship to the woman was unclear. Noureddine said some kind of disagreement arose between al-Osaibi and the officers before he heard a dozen shots.
“Nothing could justify so many shots,” he said, pointing to the chaotic footage he filmed showing Palestinian vendors and worshipers screaming at the sound of bullets being fired in rapid succession. “They were all point blank.”
Palestinian media widely reported that al-Osaibi was a doctor who recently studied medicine in Romania.
Noureddine said police tried to force Palestinian vendors and worshipers out of the area after the incident, beating him and others with batons. Israeli police briefly closed the site before reopening it for dawn prayers.
In previous years, Ramadan has seen Israeli police attack Palestinians gathered around the compound of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. Ramadan coincides this year with Judaism’s Easter and Christian Easter.
In 2021, the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem served as a catalyst for widespread Palestinian protests throughout Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli security forces during Ramadan further heightened tensions, and four days later, a 11-day Israeli attack on Gaza began, apparently in response to rockets fired by Hamas at Israel.
