Clashes between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli police left 42 injured this Friday in the Esplanade of the Mosques, a focus of tension in the center of Jerusalem, after more than a month of violence in the Occupied Territories and in Israel. Friday morning”42 people were injured in clashes with the occupation forces” on the Esplanade of the Mosques, announced the Palestinian Red Crescent, which had previously given a first balance of 12 wounded.
Of the 42 injured, 22 were transported to the Jerusalem hospital, although “none is in serious condition,” said this entity. The Israeli police indicated that their officers intervened because “rioters” threw stones and fireworks to the Wailing Wall, the most important place of prayer for the Jews, also located in that enclosure. The statement indicates that the police used “riot dispersal means” in their intervention. Witnesses and AFP journalists pointed out that officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
A precarious calm settled later, when a crowd of worshipers gathered to pray on this last Friday of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that ends early next week. Some carried Palestinian flags and the Islamist Hamas movement. In recent days, tension has been high in the Mosque Esplanade, considered the third holy place for Muslims and the holiest for Jews under its name “Temple Mount”.
Climbing
Over the past two weeks, some 300 Palestinians have been injured in clashes at this site in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Esplanade of the Mosques is located in the eastern part of Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, then annexed. this holy place it is administered by Jordan but its access is controlled by the Jewish State.
These disturbances take place in a context of escalation after four attacks since the end of March in Israel, which left 14 dead, including an Arab-Israeli policeman and two Ukrainians. Two of the attacks were carried out in Tel-Aviv by Palestinians from the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Since then, a total of 26 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs have been killed. (including the perpetrators of the attacks) in clashes with Israeli forces, which carried out operations in the occupied West Bank. These clashes occurred when the “Al-Quds Day” (Jerusalem in Arabic) is celebrated this Friday, initiated by Iran after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Thousands of people demonstrated in Iran, an enemy of the Jewish state, in support of the Palestinians .
“The Islamic Republic of Iran backs and supports the Palestinian resistance (…) and we condemn the treacherous move to normalize relations [con Israel]”Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah said on television. Ali Jamenei.
Provocation
On Thursday night, leaders of the Palestinian movements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, close to Iran, held a demonstration in a Gaza stadium to mark this day and urged to “defend” Jerusalem and the Esplanade of the Mosques. The general House Salamihead of the Guardians of the Revolution, an Iranian ideological army, participated in the event by videoconference and stated that “the State of Israel will be defeated.”
The presence on the Esplanade of the Mosques during Ramadan of a large number of Jews – who are allowed to visit the place under certain conditions and at specific times, but without praying – and the deployment of the security forces in this place located in the Old City of Jerusalem, was described as a “provocation” by the Palestinians and several countries in the region.
“Jerusalem will remain at the center of the conflict with the enemy,” Hamas said on Friday, who governs the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Furthermore, they explained that the enemy’s “projects of Judaization, desecration and division” are doomed to failure.
But Israel will maintain the status quo of the Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, the head of Israeli diplomacy assured on Sunday. Yair Lapidwho affirmed that the recent police interventions on the esplanade were “justified”.
Ariel shooting
Hours later a security guard died Friday night at a shooting attack in the Israeli settlement of Arielin the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, reported the Israeli Army and medical services.
The authors of the shooting would be two people who approached by car to one of the entrances of Ariel – one of the largest settlements in the West Bank – “and shot a security guard at the surveillance post,” a military spokesman specified.
The attackers fled the scene after the shooting, and Israeli security forces are now conducting search and seizure operations to apprehend themfor which several roads in the area were closed.
The Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) arrived shortly after the attack “and provided medical attention to a critically ill man in his twenties” who ended up dying from his gunshot wounds, a medical spokesman said in a statement.
the islamist group hamaswhich governs in Gaza, reacted by praising the attack, which described as “heroic” action before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as part of the Palestinian “revolution” against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
The incident occurs amid an escalation of tension in the region in the framework of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Between the end of March and April, several attacks in Israeli territory left 14 dead. This was followed by arrest operations, clashes and violent incidents with Israeli forces in the West Bank that resulted in the death of some thirty Palestinians.
Meanwhile Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, the part of Yemen under Houthi control and Bahrain were among the few Arab countries in the Middle East that registered this Friday rallies in support of the Palestinian people in front of Israel on the so-called “Al Quds Day (Jerusalem)“.
Despite the clashes on the Esplanade, the events for this day, which coincides with the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, they were almost exclusively limited to countries or groups with ties to Iran.