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Israeli police battle protesters at Al-Aqsa mosque |
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(03/06/2010)
Jerusalem, PAB-Online
Israeli police on Friday battled Muslims at the Al-Aqsa mosque
compound, one of Islam's holiest sites, drawing Palestinian criticism
on the eve of a US push to revive peace talks between the two sides.
Riot police stormed the hilltop enclosure when the Muslim protesters threw stones after the main weekly prayers, an AFP photographer at the scene witnessed.
The police fired tear gas and threw stun grenades to disperse the protesters, before skirmishes continued in the lanes and alleys of the Old City outside the compound.
Several dozen people were wounded, including about 15 police, before the confrontation ended with the Israeli forces leaving the compound after negotiating with Muslim authorities there.
There were also clashes in Ras el-Amud and Issawiya, in the predominantly Arab eastern part of Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle East war.
The violence at the Al-Aqsa compound came less than a week after a similar incident at the same site and just ahead of visits by US envoy George Mitchell, who is expected to arrive in the region on Saturday, and Vice President Joe Biden, due early next week.
The two are to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders and are expected to launch indirect talks between the sides as a prelude to full-fledged peace negotiations.
On Wednesday, Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo lent their support to indirect US-mediated talks, which they said should not exceed four months.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had said before the ministers' decision that he would abide by it, and was expected to make a formal announcement this weekend regarding the indirect talks.
Eight Palestinians were arrested in Friday's clashes, a police spokesman told AFP.
Hospitals in east Jerusalem admitted about 30 demonstrators for injuries caused by rubber bullets and teargas, medical staff said.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina slammed "the escalation of Israeli violence in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank aimed at sabotaging American efforts to relaunch" Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Syria said later it "condemns the Israeli aggression" at the Temple Mount which showed the Jewish state rejected efforts to relaunch the peace process.
"The Israeli violations occur when the Arab League accepted the launch of indirect negotiations... which is further evidence of the seriousness of Israel's quest for peace," said a foreign ministry statement.
"It's also proof that the Israeli policy rejects the peace process and seeks to liquidate the Palestinian cause."
The compound containing the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock is Islam's third-holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Jews call the site Temple Mount and consider it their holiest
site.
Jerusalem police said they intervened when Palestinians hurled stones over a wall dividing the mosque enclosure from a neighbouring Jewish holy site.
"Our officers entered the compound after volleys of stones were thrown at Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall, below the mosque compound," a spokesman told AFP.
Police cleared the Jewish site of visitors when the stones started raining down.
There were similar outbreaks at the compound last Sunday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was placing two West Bank shrines - The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem - on a list of Israeli heritage sites.
In Hebron on Friday, hundreds of Muslim worshippers protested at the tomb site, which is revered by Muslims and Jews and known in Islam as the Ibrahimi mosque.
Israeli troops who police the site fired tear gas and stun grenades to break up the crowd, some of whom waved Palestinian flags and chanted, "the Ibrahimi mosque is ours."
There were no reports of injuries.
The militant Islamic Hamas movement, which opposes peace with Israel, said the Israeli use of force in Jerusalem and Hebron was a consequence of Abbas and his Western-backed administration's agreement to deal - even indirectly - with the Israelis.
"The Israeli escalation in Jerusalem and Hebron is a natural result of the decision to resume negotiations," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement, which hinted further unrest could lie ahead.
"All the options are open to our people", it said. (AFP/IP)
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