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Israeli police have entered Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque by drive in a daybreak raid, clashing with worshipers and drawing condemnation from Arab international locations.
The incident, throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover, sparked a livid response within the occupied West Financial institution and cross-border strikes in Gaza.
It got here amid fears tensions constructed up throughout a 12 months of escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence might be unleashed on the Al-Aqsa mosque, identified to Jews because the Temple Mount.
Palestinian militants fired at the very least 9 rockets from Gaza into Israel in a single day, prompting air strikes from Israel that hit what it stated have been weapon manufacturing websites for the Islamist group Hamas, which controls the blockaded coastal enclave.
Hamas didn’t declare accountability for the rocket assaults however stated these have been in response to the Israeli raid on Al-Aqsa, the place clashes in 2021 set off a 10-day struggle with Gaza.
As ground-shaking explosions from the air strikes rocked Gaza, witnesses stated Israeli tanks additionally shelled Hamas positions.
“We aren’t enthusiastic about an escalation, however we’re prepared for any state of affairs,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari stated.
As day broke, with worldwide efforts beneath solution to de-escalate the state of affairs, tensions appeared to have calmed in Al-Aqsa, the place giant crowds of worshipers spent the evening as is widespread throughout Ramadan.
The Palestinian Purple Crescent stated 12 Palestinians had sustained wounds throughout the raid, together with from rubber-tipped bullets and beatings, in clashes with the police.
It stated Israeli forces had prevented its medics from reaching the world.
“Within the yard to the jap a part of the compound, the police fired tear gasoline and stun grenades. It was a scene that I can not describe,” stated Fahmi Abbas, a worshiper on the mosque.
“Then they stormed in and began beating everybody. They detained folks and put the younger males face down on the bottom whereas they continued beating them.”
Movies circulating on social media, which Reuters couldn’t independently confirm, confirmed fireworks going off and police beating folks inside one of many mosque buildings.
Police video confirmed police getting into the constructing whereas firecrackers exploded within the darkness.
Israeli police stated in a press release safety models have been pressured to enter the compound after what it known as masked agitators locked themselves contained in the mosque with fireworks, sticks and stones.
“Following many steady makes an attempt to take away the people from the mosque utilizing dialogue failed, police have been pressured to enter the compound with a purpose to take away the people,” police stated.
“All through the presence of police forces within the compound, stones have been thrown and a number of firecrackers have been set off contained in the mosque by many law-breaking people and rioters,” the assertion stated, including two cops have been wounded.
It stated greater than 350 individuals who had barricaded themselves inside have been arrested and eliminated.
Hundreds of worshipers spent the evening within the mosque compound, amid fears of doable clashes with Jewish guests to the location, which they revere because the Temple Mount, the location of Judaism’s two historical Temples.
Beneath the long-standing “establishment” association governing the world, which Israel says it maintains, non-Muslims can go to however solely Muslims are allowed to worship within the mosque compound.
Jewish guests have more and more prayed roughly brazenly on the website in defiance of the foundations.
The Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed Islamic group that manages the advanced, thought-about the third holiest website within the Muslim world, described the police actions as a “flagrant assault on the id and the operate of the mosque as a spot of worship for Muslims alone “.
– Reuters
