Violence at Jerusalem holy site heightens holiday tension

The clashes, which come as Muslims celebrate the festive month of Ramadan and Jews prepare to begin the Passover festival on Wednesday night, raised fears of a broader conflagration. The mosque sits in a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and conflicting claims about it have turned to violence before, most recently in a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the group Islamic militant who rules Gaza. Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in a place known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism.

By early morning, the Jerusalem compound, which is usually packed with worshipers during Ramadan, had calmed down. Palestinian militant groups warned more fighting was ahead, but a Palestinian official said the Palestinian Authority was in contact with officials in Egypt, Jordan, the United States and the United Nations to reduce tensions. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to report to the media.

Israeli border police detain a Palestinian woman at the Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, as tension escalates during clashes with Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 5, 2023. (Reuters)

People who were detained at the compound and later released said police used batons, chairs, rifles and whatever else they could find to beat Palestinians, including women and children, who responded by throwing firecrackers and stones. Outside the gate of the mosque, police dispersed a crowd of youths with stun grenades and rubber bullets.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 50 people were injured. Israeli police said they could not immediately confirm reports and videos showing officers beating Palestinians, but said 350 were arrested. They added that one officer was injured in the leg. Separately, the Israeli army said a soldier was shot and moderately wounded in the occupied West Bank.

Crowds of Palestinians gathered around a Jerusalem police station on Wednesday, anxiously waiting for their loved ones, many wearing blood-stained shirts and limping on bandaged legs, to emerge from detention.

Amin Risheq, a 19-year-old from east Jerusalem, lifted up his bloody shirt to show his concerned mother red stains all over his back and bandaged arm, which he said was hit by a tear gas canister. He said that after he was beaten and forced to lie on the floor of the mosque with dozens of others, with his hands tied behind his back, he was taken to the police station, where he said he had no access to a bathroom, medical attention or water for more than six hours. “They treated us like animals,” he said.

Israeli police are deployed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound following a raid on the site in Jerusalem’s Old City during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Wednesday, April 5, 2023. (AP)

Since Ramadan began on March 22, dozens of Muslim worshipers have repeatedly attempted to spend the night in the mosque, a practice generally allowed only during the last 10 days of the month-long holiday. The Israeli police have entered every night to evict the faithful. Tensions have been further heightened by calls by Jewish ultra-nationalists to carry out a ritual slaughter of a goat at the compound, the site where biblical temples once stood, as they did in ancient times.

Israel bans ritual slaughter at the site, but calls by Jewish extremists to revive the practice, including offers of cash rewards to anyone who even tries to bring an animal to the compound, have raised fears among Muslims that Israel is planning take over the site. .

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is committed to preserving the longstanding agreement on the complex.

More than 100 religious Jews filtered through the site Wednesday during regular morning visiting hours, as small crowds of Muslims gathered around them chanting: “God is greater!”

Palestinians walk out as Israeli security forces take up positions in the Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, as tension builds during clashes with Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem, on 5 January. April 2023. (Reuters)

Jews are allowed to visit the compound, but not to pray there, according to longstanding agreements. But such visits, which have increased in number in recent years, have often heightened tensions, particularly as some Jews are often seen praying in silence. After some 80,000 worshipers attended evening prayers at the mosque on Tuesday, hundreds of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside overnight to pray. . Some said they wanted to make sure religious Jews did not carry out animal sacrifices. After they refused to leave, the Israeli police moved into the mosque.

Israeli police said “several young lawbreakers and masked rioters” brought fireworks, sticks and stones into the mosque, shouted insults and locked the main doors. “After many and prolonged attempts to get them out by talking to no avail, police forces were forced to enter the compound,” police said.

Moayad Abu Mayaleh, 23, said he blocked the door of the mosque with hundreds of people to prevent police from entering. But the police broke down the east gate, he said. “We can’t let them get away with this,” he said, yelling insults at the Israeli police as he left the police station.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian leaders denounced the attack on worshipers as a rape that “will lead to a huge explosion.” The foreign ministries of Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia also condemned what they described as the Israeli raid on Al-Aqsa, as did the Jordanian-controlled Islamic trust that runs the site, known as the Waqf.

Israeli border police work in the Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, as tensions escalate during clashes with Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem, on April 5, 2023. (Reuters) )

Palestinian militants responded to the events by firing a barrage of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, sounding air-raid sirens in the region as residents prepared to begin the week-long Passover holiday.

The Israeli army said a total of five rockets were fired and all were intercepted. Israel responded with airstrikes that the army says hit Hamas weapons storage and manufacturing sites. “We don’t want this to escalate,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an army spokesman. But he said if the rocket fire persisted, “we will respond very aggressively.”

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called on Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel to gather around the Al-Aqsa Mosque and confront Israeli forces. The Palestinians must be prepared “for the inevitable confrontation in the coming days,” said Ziyad al-Nakhala, the leader of Islamic Jihad. As the violence in Jerusalem unfolded, the Israeli army reported fighting in a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank. He said residents of Beit Umar, near the restive city of Hebron, burned tires, hurled stones and explosives at soldiers. He said a soldier was shot by armed suspects, who managed to flee. He said later that day that Palestinians opened fire at a checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, leaving no casualties.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has increased over the past year, as the Israeli army has carried out near-nightly raids on Palestinian cities, towns and villages and Palestinians have carried out numerous attacks against Israelis.

At least 88 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, according to a Associated Press account. Palestinian attacks on Israelis have killed 15 people in the same period. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But stone-throwing youths and bystanders who were not involved in the violence were also among the dead. All but one of the Israeli dead were civilians.