MIDDLE EAST: Sporadic clashes continue in Jerusalem's Old City after Israeli troops enter al-Aqsa compound

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 Palestinian 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. "We have invited the media to cover and witness what we are doing. We have invited members of the public. We have nothing to hide. What happened today; the sad events that we saw today, was a result of extremists who deliberately spread rumours and stories, untruth about what Israel was doing, designed cynically to explore people's fears and stir up trouble for their own extremist means," Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Mark Regev said. Dozens of Palestinians were stuck inside the mosque for over an hour as stone-throwers clashed with police outside on the grounds of the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif. 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 the compound 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 on Friday. 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. 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. In the Israeli northern city of Nazareth hundreds of Palestinian protesters took to the streets to protest the excavation work in Jerusalem. The leader of the Israel's Islamic Movement Sheik Raed Salah was at the demonstration with other political and religious figures. Nazareth is home to Israel's largest Arab population. Fearing more violent clashes, Israeli authorities rushed hundreds of extra police to the city, but the demonstration remained peaceful.

ITN Source | February 10, 2007

Tags:. .muslim. .movement. .foundations. .rushed. .religious