Israeli forces attack worshippers at Al-Aqsa compound for a second night, Arab League condemns raid
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Jerusalem: Israeli forces stormed into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for a second consecutive night firing stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets, using force to remove the worshippers who had gathered for prayers.
The latest violence comes hours after more than 350 people were arrested and removed on Wednesday. Tensions remained high with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coinciding with the Jewish Passover.
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip renewed their rocket fire at Israel, raising fears of a wider conflagration. The Palestinian Authority was reportedly, in contact with the officials in Egypt, Jordan, the United States and the United Nations to de-escalate the situation.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported at least six people were injured in the latest violence. The Islamic Waqf authorities, which manages the compound, said police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
The Israeli police said that “dozens of law-breaking juveniles” had caused the chaos, throwing rocks and other objects at officers and compelling police to act to restore “security, law and order.”
More Palestinians had gathered in the mosque, responding to calls by Waqf to pray inside overnight.
Early on Wednesday, Israeli police attacked the Al-Aqsa Mosque, firing stun grenades at Palestinians who hurled stones and firecrackers in a burst of violence. Palestinian militants in Gaza responded with rocket fire on southern Israel, prompting repeated Israeli airstrikes.
On Wednesday evening, Palestinian militants fired two more rockets from Gaza, with one falling short inside Gaza and the other falling near the security fence separating Gaza from Israel, the Israeli military said. There were no reports of casualties.
The mosque sits in a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and conflicting claims over it have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza.
Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest site in Islam and stands in a spot known to Jews as the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism.
The Arab League on Wednesday strongly condemned an Israeli police raid on Al-Aqsa mosque saying it put regional stability at risk.
In a statement issued after an emergency meeting on the incident, the League condemned what it called "crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces against defenceless Muslim worshippers" in the mosque.
The pre-dawn raid risked "igniting a spiral of violence that threatens security and stability in the region and the world", it added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the country was working to “calm tensions” at the holy site.
People who were detained at the compound and later released said police used batons, chairs, rifles and whatever else they could find to strike Palestinians, including women and children, who responded by hurling stones and setting off firecrackers.
Outside the mosque’s gate, police dispersed crowds of young men with stun grenades and rubber bullets.
Most of the Palestinians arrested from Al-Aqsa were released from detention by the early afternoon, said lawyer Khaled Zabarqa, who represents several of them. But he said that some 50 Palestinians, many of them from the occupied West Bank, were still detained and would have their cases heard at the Ofer military court on Friday. He put the total number of arrested at 450.
UN Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland said he was “appalled by the images of violence” at Al-Aqsa, condemning the beating and mass arrests of Palestinians as well as reports of Palestinians stockpiling firecrackers and rocks.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, expressed “outrage and condemnation” at the attack, telling reporters at UN headquarters: “It is the right of the Palestinian Muslim worshippers to exercise their religious duties and prayers in this holy month of Ramadan, and in any other time in this holy Aqsa Mosque.”
Crowds of Palestinians gathered around a police station in Jerusalem on Wednesday, waiting anxiously for their loved ones to trickle out of detention.
Amin Risheq, a 19-year-old from east Jerusalem, said that after being beaten and forced to lay on the floor of the mosque with dozens of others, his hands zip-tied behind his back, he was taken to the police station where he said he did not have access to a toilet, medical attention or water for over six hours. “They treated us like animals,” he said, as quoted by Arab News.
Since Ramadan began March 22, scores of Muslim worshippers have repeatedly tried to stay overnight in the mosque, a practice that is typically permitted only during the last 10 days of the monthlong holiday.
Netanyahu repeated Wednesday that he’s committed to preserving the longstanding arrangement at the compound. He described the worshippers who locked themselves in the mosque as “extremists” who prevented Muslims from entering the mosque peacefully.
Over a hundred religious Jews filtered through the site on Wednesday during regular morning visiting hours, as small crowds of Muslims gathered around them shouting, “God is greater!”
Jews are permitted to visit the compound, but not pray there, under longstanding agreements.
But such visits, which have grown in numbers in recent years, have often raised tensions, particularly because of some Jews praying at the site.
After some 80,000 worshippers attended evening prayers at the mosque on Tuesday, hundreds of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside overnight to pray. Some said they wanted to ensure religious Jews didn’t carry out animal sacrifices. After they refused to leave, Israeli police moved into the mosque, reports Arab News.
Israeli police said “several law-breaking youths and masked agitators” brought fireworks, sticks and stones into the mosque, chanting insults and locking the front 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.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged over the last year, as the Israeli military has carried out near-nightly raids on Palestinian cities, towns and villages and as Palestinians have staged numerous attacks against Israelis.
At least 88 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, according to an Associated Press tally. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 15 people in the same period.
Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But stone-throwing youths and bystanders uninvolved in violence were also among the dead, reports Arab News.
