More than 175 Palestinians and six Israeli police were injured on Friday, most of them in the Temple Square in the Old City. Jerusalem, the most widespread conflict in recent years, set in the last weeks of an escalating tension that is of concern to Washington.
Tens of thousands of devout Muslims gathered yesterday in Temple Square – the Temple Mount for the Jews – in the last major Friday prayer of the holy month of Ramadan.
However, clashes erupted between Palestinians, who threw stones and objects, and Israeli police, who used flash grenades and fired plastic bullets at protesters. An AFP photographer said he saw 12 protesters with facial injuries.
“Hundreds of rioters threw stones, bottles and other objects at police who responded,” Israeli police said. A police spokesman spoke of “violent riots”.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Ambulance Service said 88 of the injured Palestinians were taken to hospital after being hit with rubber-coated metal bullets. One of the injured lost his eye, two suffered serious head injuries and two broke their jaws, the Red Crescent said.
Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police also broke out in the nearby Sheikh Jara district, where protests have been taking place in recent nights against the possible eviction of Palestinian families in favor of Israeli settlers. The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least four Palestinians were injured.
A fragile calm appeared to return to East Jerusalem after midnight, AFP reporters reported.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 178 protesters were injured last night in Jerusalem, most of them in Temenon Square in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the city that has occupied and annexed Israel since 1967.
Israeli police said six people were injured in the attack.
Last night’s demonstrations were the most violent in Jerusalem, following clashes that raged overnight between Palestinians and Israelis on the outskirts of the Old City in late April that left 125 people injured, as well as post-conflict clashes. US embassy in the disputed city in 2018.
Israel’s strategic allies, the United States yesterday called for “de-escalation” of tensions and “avoidance” of the eviction of Palestinian families.
The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East, Thor Wensland, expressed deep concern over the situation and called for calm and a show of responsibility.
“We hold Israel responsible for the dangerous developments in the Old City,” said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, calling the Palestinians gathered in Temenon Square “heroic.”
The European Union, Jordan and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council have expressed concern about the possible eviction of Palestinian families.
“At all costs”
In the Sheikh Jara district, about 100 Palestinians took to the streets again at night, but police dispersed the crowd using flash grenades, AFP reporters reported. The Red Crescent reported at least four Palestinians injured.
The police used water cannons placed in armored vehicles to dissolve several hundred protesters that were concentrated near the families of families that face possible eviction.
Few protesters remained there late at night amid a large police presence.
The armed Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has called on Palestinians to stay in Temenon Square from Saturday night until Thursday morning, when the month of Ramadan is expected to end.
“The Israeli occupation forces must realize that the resistance is ready to defend al-Aqsa Mosque at all costs,” Hamas said, as Israeli Arab parties called for demonstrations in Israeli-majority Israeli cities.
The new violence comes amid rising tensions in the eastern part of Jerusalem and the West Bank, a Palestinian territory that has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
Earlier in the day, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians and wounded a third, who opened fire on border guards in the North West, without causing any Israeli casualties.
Strong concern on the part of the US
“We are deeply concerned about the escalation of tensions in Jerusalem,” said the State Department, which has expressed “concern about possible evictions of Palestinian families” in East Jerusalem, “many of whom, of course, live in their homes.”
Friday’s violence coincided with “Al-Quds Day (Jerusalem in Arabic)” which is celebrated every year in countries in the region, especially in Iran, a sworn enemy of Israel, in support of the Palestinians.
In Tehran, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, backed the fight against Israel, which he described as a “terrorist base”. For him, the “fall of the hostile Zionist regime” is inevitable.
Israel’s Supreme Court will hold a hearing on Monday on the expulsion of Sheikh Jara, the same day that Israel celebrates Jerusalem Day – the annual celebration of the occupation of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East war.
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