Daily Times

JERUSALEM: At least seven Palestinians were injured after being hit by rubber bullets as clashes broke out between civilians and the Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque here, the Russia Today channel reported on Sunday.

Al-Aqsa director Sheikh Omar Kiswani told the Anadolu news service that disturbances started after Israeli police opened a gate to the compound, which is used by tourists and Jews to enter the site. He said that it was unprecedented that such an event could occur in the last 10 days of the Islamic month of Ramazan.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld denied reports that people other than Muslims had been banned from entering the complex during the last 10 days of the religious holiday. He said that four young Palestinians had been arrested for disrupting the passage of the people other than Muslims to the site. He said that he wasn’t aware of the police officers using any force against the civilians.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem is seen as the third most sacred site in Islam. The area has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Muslims don’t want Jews to pray in the vicinity of their place of worship, which the Jews refer to as Table Mount. Earlier this year, Israeli troops reportedly escorted Israeli settlers to the holy site on several occasions during Passover week.

Two groups of around 50 Jewish men were said to have shouted racist and provocative slogans and attempted to pray, although it is forbidden for the Jews to do so at the site. “Israel police escorted roughly 1,050 people to the Temple Mount, including 885 tourists and over 100 Israelis, and during the visit 13 people were removed from the area for not behaving according to the security measures that were implemented,” Rosenfeld had said.

This incident came weeks after the UNESCO said that the Temple Mount site, on which the Al-Aqsa Mosque is situated, was an integral part of Palestine. The organisation also criticised Israel as the occupying power for planting fake graves inside Muslims’ cemeteries.

UNESECO strongly condemns the Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access to their holy site, and requests Israel to respect the historic status quo and to immediately stop these measures, a statement read.