Local Editor
More than 30 of Palestinians holding a sit-in in Al-Aqsa Mosque were wounded after Israeli occupation forces shot at them on Wednesday in an attempt to eject them by force from the mosque, Al-Manar correspondent said.
Aqsa woundedA large number of police officers broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard, firing rubber bullets and stun grenades. The occupation forces also detained one of the mosque guards.
Palestinians holding the sit-in confronted the Israeli forces that attempted to bring Jewish settlers to Al-Aqsa to perform their rituals, Palestine Today reported.
Witnesses said that Zionist Special Forces and snipers that were deployed forced Palestinians to leave the yards of Al-Aqsa and besieged those in the mosque, Arabs48 website reported.
Special Forces were also deployed on all entrances of Al-Aqsa, they set up checkpoints and prevented hundreds of women and men that are under the age of 50 from worshiping in the mosque.
Israeli forces also assaulted the protestors near Bab Hatta and Bab Al-Silsila.
It is noteworthy that tightening the security measures in and near Al-Aqsa coincides with extremist Jewish calls for breaking into Al-Aqsa.
Source: Al-Manar Website
Israeli police injure dozens at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque
Israeli police wounded dozens of Palestinians were wounded in clashes that erupted Wednesday when Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound was opened to Jewish visitors, an AFP correspondent said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that Palestinians threw "stones and firecrackers" at police when they opened the walled compound's gates.
Police responded with stun grenades, Rosenfeld said, and closed the complex to the Jewish visitors after a number had toured the site.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said dozens of Palestinians were wounded by rubber-coated bullets and stun grenade canisters, and were staying inside the Al-Aqsa mosque out of fear they would be arrested when leaving.
Al-Aqsa Mosque director Sheikh Azam al-Kahtib told Ma’an news agency that “about 1,000 Israeli officers stormed the compound.” He said Israeli officers used live ammunition.
Israeli special forces have been deployed at the main gates since dawn prayer, witnesses said, denying Palestinian worshipers entry to the compound. Employees of the ministry of endowment and students who attend schools inside the compound were also denied entry. Only security guards were allowed, as well as men over 65 years old.
The compound, in Jerusalem's Old City, houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.
It is also revered as the location of the biblical Jewish temples and is considered Judaism's holiest place.
Rosenfeld said the situation on "Temple Mount," the Jewish term for the complex, was "calm again" and police had left the site.
He noted that in a separate incident elsewhere in Jerusalem's Old City a police officer was lightly wounded by stones thrown by Palestinians.
Non-Muslim visits to the Al-Aqsa complex are permitted and regulated by police, but Jews are not allowed to pray at the site.
Jews are marking Passover, a seven-day holiday. On Monday, police arrested five Jews suspected of intending to sacrifice a goat at the Al-Aqsa mosque complex, in a bid to reenact an ancient Passover ritual.
About 100 Muslim worshipers have stayed inside the compound day and night after right-wing Jewish organizations urged Jews to flock to the compound and slaughter their Passover sacrifices inside, Ma’an reported.
Jewish fringe groups have vowed to build a third Temple, but Israeli political and religious authorities have repeatedly dismissed the idea.
(AFP, Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)
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