Israel: Clashes between police and Palestinians in Mosque Square

Clashes broke out today between Israeli police and Palestinians in the East Jerusalem Mosque Square, where faithful Jews began to arrive, eyewitnesses and police said.

Israeli police said in a statement that they “repelled riots by throwing incendiary devices in Mosque Square” and spoke of at least one “slightly injured” police officer.

According to an AFP photographer on the spot, police have stepped up their presence in front of the Al Aqsa Mosque in the square. It is the third holiest site for Islam, but it is also the holiest site in Judaism as the Temple Mount.

Since mid-April, at least 300 people, most of them Palestinians, have been injured in clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in a square in the Palestinian part of Jerusalem, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.

Today’s clashes mark the 74th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel according to the Jewish calendar, and as devout Jews begin to flock to the square after a break due to the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan fasting.

On the basis of a tacit status quo, non-Muslims can come to the square, but without praying.

But the growing number of Jews coming to this point, and the fact that some of them are secretly praying there, raises fears among some Muslims that the status quo may be called into question.

Last week, the leader of the Islamic Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Shinwar, threatened Israel with rocket fire in the event of a “new attack” on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Israeli forces entered the Palestinian territories in April. area.

Source: AMPE