More than a hundred people were injured on Friday, April 15, in Jerusalem, during clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police on the esplanade of the Mosques, according to witnesses and rescuers.
According to a new report, “153 wounded Palestinians were transferred” in hospitals in Jerusalem and “tens” others were treated on the site, said the Palestinian Red Crescent about the violence in the Old City of East Jerusalem, located in a Palestinian area occupied since 1967 by Israel.
For its part, the Israeli police reported three injured police officers. And around 400 people have been arrested, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an NGO defending detainees. The clashes were mostly over around 9:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m. in Paris).
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Throwing stones, rubber bullets and tear gas
Witnesses spoke of Palestinians throwing stones at Israeli security forces and firing rubber bullets at some Palestinian demonstrators. Around 4 a.m., “dozens of young masked rioters”some displaying themselves with flags of the armed Islamist movement Hamas, “started a procession” on the esplanade of the Mosques, and threw stones in the direction of the adjacent Wailing Wall, the most important place of prayer in Jewish tradition, said the Israeli police saying they intervened to ” restore order “.
For his part, Omar Al-Kiswani, director of the Al-Aqsa mosque, located on the esplanade, reported a second incident that occurred in the morning involving the intervention of the Israeli police inside the place of worship. “The occupation [nom donné à Israël par des Palestiniens] knows that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line not to be crossed”he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to an AFP photographer on the spot, the clashes were fed and more than a hundred Palestinians threw projectiles in the direction of the Israeli security forces. Videos circulating on the Internet also show that the police used tear gas and stun grenades against protesters. Still others show people barricading themselves inside the mosque – which police say they did not enter – in what looks like clouds of tear gas.
The third holiest site in Islam, the Esplanade des Mosques is located in East Jerusalem, an occupied Palestinian sector which remains the scene of clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian demonstrators. During the month of Ramadan in 2021, nocturnal demonstrations in Jerusalem and clashes even on the esplanade had turned into eleven days of war between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, and Israel.
Avoid an escalation
“There is no place for invaders and occupiers on our holy Jerusalem”said Friday the head of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismaïl Haniyeh, whose movement has called for a mobilization against the Jewish state.
Hamas, whose capabilities have been affected in the 2021 war, seeks to keep the conflict active in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, while avoiding an escalation in the Gaza Strip, especially as Israel risks ending to the thousands of work permits for Gazan workers in the event of a conflict, analysts estimate. “Hamas does not want a new confrontation”emphasizes Moukhaimer Abou Saada, professor of political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which controls neither the West Bank nor the Gaza Strip, is more inclined to escalate with Israel, an Israeli security source said. “The confrontation will be closer and more difficult” for the Israeli forces if “they do not put an end to the aggression against our people”the JIP said in a statement on Friday.
“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.”commented Israeli Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, a member of the motley coalition (left, right, center, Arab) of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who lost his majority in Parliament last week with the departure of a right-wing MP.
The European Union, the United States and the Arab League have expressed concern, with the UN mediator for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, calling “to an immediate de-escalation”. Washington thought “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.”State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Twenty-one Palestinians killed in violence
Jordan administers the Esplanade des Mosques, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located, but access to this place is controlled by Israel. Shortly before the start of the month of Ramadan, on April 2 this year, Israeli and Jordanian officials stepped up talks to avoid further clashes.
This weekend, in the middle of Ramadan, the authorities feared slippages in the holy city with the start of the Christian celebrations of Easter and Jewish Passover with prayers at the Wailing Wall, a rare coincidence of calendars between the three major monotheistic religions.
Moreover, this violence in the heart of Jerusalem comes after a series of attacks in Israel and Israeli operations in the West Bank, another territory occupied since 1967 by the Jewish state. 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 the last two by Palestinians from the Jenin sector in the West Bank.
These attacks killed fourteen people. In addition, twenty-one Palestinians, including assailants, have been killed in violence since that date, according to an AFP tally. On Thursday, three Palestinians were killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank, which also left many injured, one of whom finally succumbed to his wounds on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.