After more than three weeks of incessant violence, the Tension between Israelis and Palestinians spread to Jerusalem this Friday, with clashes on the Esplanade of the Mosques that left more than 150 injured and generated threats of attacks from the Gaza Strip.
It was exactly 24 days that the current spike in tension reaching its boiling point in the geographical and spiritual heart of the conflictand it did so on a day in which there is an unusual coincidence between the Muslim festival of Ramadan, the celebrations of Good Friday and the beginning of the Jewish Passover.
The clashes on Friday began very early and, according to the Israeli police, were triggered by the stone throwing and fireworks by Palestinian protesters on the Esplanadelocated in the Old City of
Jerusalem, specifically in the occupied eastern part of the city.
In the face of these disturbances, a police spokesman explained that his troops responded with riot dispersal means, including rubber bullets. The protesters later barricaded themselves in the holy Al Aqsa mosque, which was later stormed by Israeli security forces.
These incidents resulted in at least 153 Palestinians injured, according to the Red Crescent emergency service, while the Israeli Police indicated that at least three of their officers were injured. In addition, Israeli security forces detained “hundreds of rioters,” arrests that were carried out both inside the mosque and in its surroundings.
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From March 22, Israel suffered four attacks, two of them claimed by the Islamic State jihadist organization and the last two linked to Palestinians from the Jenin area, in the West Bank.
These attacks caused 14 deaths. In addition, 21 Palestinians, including those responsible for the attacks, emerged with violence since that same date, according to the count.
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The death this morning of a 17-year-old minor as a result of the injuries suffered yesterday in clashes with the Israeli security forces raised to seven the number of Palestinians killed in violent episodes in the West Bank in the last two days.
The previous incidents, however, had not yet spread to Jerusalem or generated concrete threats from Gaza, something that did happen on Friday. “Weapons will be met with more weapons and the only solution against force is more force,” he said on Friday. Fawzi Barhum, spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas, during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip.
“We will continue to defend Jerusalem and Al Aqsa with all our forces,” he added, and showed his support for the young people who demonstrated today on the Esplanade of the Mosques.
From the West Bank, the president of the Palestinian Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas, urged the international community to protect the Palestinian people from attacks by Israeli security forces.
For his part, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid described the incidents on Friday morning as “unacceptable riots” that he said “go against the spirit” of the three religions that are concentrated in the city.
“The convergence of Passover (Passover), Ramadan and Easter symbolizes what we have in common. We must not allow anyone to turn these holy days into a platform for hatred, incitement and violence,” Lapid added.
injury report
In a first report delivered to AFP, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported seven wounded in the morning clashes in the Old City of East Jerusalem, an area occupied by Israel since 1967.
But the balance was quickly revised upwards. “ Twenty wounded have so far been transferred to Jerusalem hospitals following the ongoing clashes and there are still wounded at the scene. ”, added the agency.
For its part, Israeli police reported that three officers were injured.
The number of Palestinian wounded rose from 90 to 153 after clashes with Israeli police officersas reported by the Red Crescent emergency service, which specified that this figure corresponds to those who had to be transferred to nearby hospitals or clinics to receive medical care.
What is the Esplanade of the Mosques?
The Esplanade of the Mosques is known by the Jews as the Temple Mount and represents its most sacred place, where the temples of Solomon and Herod were, while for Muslims it is Haram al Sharif and, because it houses the Al Aqsa mosqueis its third most sacred site.
“I call on political, religious and community leaders on all sides to help defuse the situation, refrain from spreading inflammatory rhetoric and speak out against those who seek to worsen the situation,” the United Nations envoy said on Friday. for the peace process in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, in an attempt to reduce tension in the area.
Beyond incidents in Jerusalem, during Friday there were also numerous protests by Palestinians in West Bank territory and an attack in the city of Haifa in which a 15-year-old girl stabbed and moderately injured a 47-year-old man before being arrested.
Although the identity of the young woman or the victim has not yet been confirmed, the Police reported that they are analyzing the event as an attack with nationalist motives.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE
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