Israeli police clash with Palestinians outside the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem yesterday.
AFP/Jerusalem
Dozens of Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli police that erupted yesterday when Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque compound was opened to Jewish visitors.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Palestinians threw “stones and firecrackers” at police when they opened the walled compound’s gates.
Police responded with stun grenades, Rosenfeld said, and closed the complex to the Jewish visitors after a small number had toured the site.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said dozens of Palestinians were wounded by rubber-coated bullets and stun grenade canisters, and were staying inside the Al Aqsa mosque out of fear they would be arrested when leaving.
Rosenfeld said the situation on “Temple Mount”, the Jewish term for the complex, was “calm again” and police had left the site.
He noted that in a separate incident elsewhere in Jerusalem’s Old City a police officer was lightly wounded by stones thrown by Palestinians.
Non-Muslim visits to the Al Aqsa complex are permitted and regulated by police, but Jews are not allowed to pray at the site.
Jews are marking Passover, a seven-day holiday which in ancient times was marked by mass pilgrimage to the Temple Mount.
On Monday, police arrested five Jews suspected of intending to sacrifice a goat at the Al Aqsa complex, in a bid to re-enact an ancient Passover ritual.
Jewish fringe groups have vowed to build a third Temple, but Israeli political and religious authorities have repeatedly dismissed the idea.
Jordan yesterday urged the UN Security Council to end Israeli “escalation”.
“Legal, humanitarian and ethical duties of the UN Security Council and the international community require that they stop Israeli escalation and violations committed by Jewish radicals at Al Aqsa,” Information Minister Mohamed Momani told the state-run Petra news agency.
“Such actions as well as Israel’s insistence on supporting radical groups provoke Muslims around the world, create more instability in the region and violate international laws.”
Under the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty, the kingdom is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
