PMore than 150 Palestinians were injured Friday during clashes with Israeli police on the esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem, the first on this place since the beginning of Ramadan, amid fears of a conflagration in the Palestinian Territories.
According to a report from the Palestinian Red Crescent at the end of the afternoon, “153 wounded Palestinians were transferred” to hospitals in Jerusalem and “dozens” of others treated on the site.
For its part, the Israeli police reported at least three wounded in its ranks. And around 400 people have been arrested, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an NGO defending detainees.
Third holiest site in Islam, the esplanade of the Mosques – also called Temple Mount by the Jews – is located in the Old City in East Jerusalem, an area occupied since 1967 by Israel and the scene of numerous violent clashes between police. Israelis and Palestinian protesters.
“Red line”
Early Friday, witnesses reported stones thrown by Palestinians and rubber bullets and stun grenades fired by Israeli police.
Around 4:00 a.m., “dozens of young masked rioters”, some displaying themselves with flags of the armed Islamist movement Hamas, marched on the esplanade of the Mosques.
They threw stones at the adjacent Western Wall, the most important place of prayer in Jewish tradition, Israeli police said, saying they intervened to “restore order”.
For his part, Omar al-Kiswani, director of the al-Aqsa mosque, located on the esplanade, affirmed that the Israeli police had intervened inside this cult place. The al-Aqsa mosque is a “red line not to be crossed”, he told AFP.
These clashes are the first this year since the start of Ramadan, a period of large gatherings for Muslims in this sacred place at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During Ramadan in 2021, nocturnal demonstrations in Jerusalem and clashes on the esplanade had turned into eleven days of war between Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, and Israel.
Hamas, whose capacities were affected during this war, “does not want a new confrontation”, estimates Moukhaimer Abou Saada, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.
The Islamic Jihad, the second Palestinian Islamist movement, would be more inclined to an escalation with Israel, indicates an Israeli security source on condition of anonymity.
“The confrontation will be more (…) difficult” for the Israeli forces if “they do not put an end to the aggression against our people”, affirmed Friday this movement which brought together thousands of supporters in Gaza, with Hamas , in support of the defense of the esplanade, according to an AFP team on site.
The European Union, the United States and the Arab League have expressed concern, with the UN mediator for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, calling for “immediate de-escalation”.
Washington said it was “deeply concerned about the violence in Jerusalem”.
“We call on all parties to exercise restraint, to avoid provocation by word or deed, and to preserve the historic status quo on the Al-Masjid/Temple Mount,” the spokesperson said in a statement. of the US State Department, Ned Price.
“Detention”
France had also earlier called for “maximum restraint”, while Qatar, which has acted as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians in the past, expressed its “strong condemnation” of the “attack on the faithful “Muslims.
“We have no interest in the Temple Mount becoming the center of violence. It would harm both the Muslims there and the Jews at the Western Wall,” Israel’s Public Security Minister Omer Bar- Lev, a member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s motley coalition.
The latter lost his majority in Parliament last week with the departure of a right-wing MP.
Too strong police measures could compromise the support of Arab MPs for the coalition, while violence by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs could encourage other departures of right-wing MPs, estimates the local press.
The latest clashes, which coincide with the start of Christian Easter and Jewish Passover celebrations, add to weeks of tensions in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Since March 22, Israel has been hit by four attacks, the first two carried out by Israeli Arabs linked to the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS) and whose three perpetrators were killed by Israeli forces. Two other attacks were perpetrated in the Tel Aviv area by Palestinians from the Jenin area in the occupied West Bank.
These attacks claimed the lives of fourteen people in Israel. In addition, 22 Palestinians, including assailants, have been killed since that date in violence, linked in particular to “anti-terrorist operations” in the West Bank, according to an AFP count.
04/16/2022 00:08:13 – Jerusalem (AFP) – © 2022 AFP