At least 153 Palestinians and three Israeli police officers were injured today during clashes on the Esplanade of Mosques in occupied East Jerusalem, coinciding with the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and in a context of growing tension in the region.
Clashes with Israeli police began in the morning and ended with at least 153 Palestinians injured, according to the Red Crescent emergency service, which specified that this number corresponds to those who had to be transferred to nearby hospitals or clinics to receive medical care. In addition, a spokesperson for the Red Crescent added that the injuries reported were the result of rubber bullets, stun grenade explosions and beatings by security forces.
For their part, Israeli police reported the arrest of “hundreds of rioters” and added that three of their officers were wounded by stoning. A police spokesman specified that the incidents began this Friday morning (dawn in Brazil), with the throwing of stones and fireworks by hundreds of Palestinian protesters who would have arrived at the scene with flags of the Palestinian National Authority and the Islamic movement. Hamas. In response, troops waited until the end of the morning prayer to intervene and disperse the protesters, which eventually sparked clashes.
The incidents took place not only in open areas of the Esplanade, but also inside the Al Aqsa mosque itself, the third holiest site in Islam and rarely accessed by Israeli security forces. According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, dozens of Israeli policemen entered the mosque and “attacked thousands of Muslim worshipers” who were praying there. Security forces, however, said that “violent protesters” barricaded themselves inside the mosque and continued “inciting violence”.
These events come against a background of growing tension in the region, after a week of intense violence in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army has carried out several incursions following a series of Palestinian attacks in recent weeks. The death this morning of a 17-year-old as a result of injuries sustained on Thursday in clashes with Israeli security forces has brought the number of Palestinians killed in violent episodes in the West Bank in the past two days to seven. Until this Friday, the city of Jerusalem had been left out of the main incidents of the last few weeks, which included four serious attacks in Israel and several military operations in the territory of the West Bank.
#Disturbances #esplanade #mosques #Jerusalem #leave #injured