JERUSALEM: Israeli police confront worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem

Israeli police fired stun grenades at stone-throwing worshippers on Friday (February 9) around Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, as Palestinian anger over Israeli excavations near the site burst into violence. Around 200 police streamed onto the compound in Jerusalem's walled Old City, a flashpoint for past confrontations, and clashed with dozens of youths after mid-day prayers. A police spokesman at the scene said 15 policemen and 17 protesters were injured, none seriously. Seventeen people were arrested, some in the streets outside the Old City. Dozens were stuck inside the mosque for over an hour as stone-throwers clashed with police outside on the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif. "As a result of the tear gas and the stun grenades, a lot of the worshippers were injured inside the Al-Aqsa compound," one Palestinian said after leaving the scene. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police used stun grenades to gain control over the site and disperse between 100 and 150 youths. He said no tear gas was fired and police later withdrew from the area. The shrine has been a trigger for past Israeli-Palestinian violence. A Palestinian uprising began in 2000 after Israel's then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon toured the hilltop area. Israel's opening of an entrance to an archaeological tunnel near al-Haram al-Sharif in 1996 led to Palestinian protests and clashes in which 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers died. Police estimated that 10,000 worshippers prayed at Al-Aqsa. Fearing riots, they had tried to allow access only to women and men aged over 45, but said some younger men slipped through before they set up checkpoints. Muslim leaders had called for protests over excavations near the sacred site and Arab states had asked Israel to halt the work, charging it could undermine the foundations of Al-Aqsa. Israel says it will do no damage. The ZAKA emergency service reported stone-throwing incidents had taken place at other points around Jerusalem, where more than 2,000 police were deployed. No casualties were reported. ZAKA said police were being diverted to northern Israel to prepare for possible unrest at a major protest expected later on Friday in the city of Nazareth. In Hebron in the occupied West Bank, witnesses said the Israeli army closed the city centre after youths threw stones and burned tyres. Three people were treated at a local hospital for tear gas inhalation. Also in the West Bank in the city of Ramallah, near the Qalandia checkpoint, Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinians. Some Palestinians blocked the main road from the checkpoint with burning tyres. Thick plumes of black smoke filled the air. Israel says the holy places would not be harmed by what it calls an attempt, mandated by law, to salvage artefacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the holy complex. Israeli officials say the project is essential as an existing ramp leading up to the complex was considered unsafe after it was damaged by a snowstorm and an earthquake in 2004. Excavation work at the site did not take place on Friday, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said the excavations, 50 metres (yards) from the base of the compound, would go on. The compound, where two biblical temples once stood and Muslims believe the prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven, is in Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a step not internationally recognised. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.

ITN Source | February 9, 2007

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