Clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police left at least forty-two injured on Friday, April 29, on the esplanade of the Mosques, located in East Jerusalem, announced the Palestinian Red Crescent, after more than a month of violence in the Palestinian territories and in Israel.
Of those injured, 22 were taken to a hospital in Jerusalem, but “none are in serious condition”, said the Red Crescent. The Israeli police claimed that “rioters” had “throwing stones and shooting fireworks”some also trying to throw stones at the Wailing Wall, a Jewish holy site below.
These actions caused the police to enter the esplanade, and to use “means to disperse the crowd”, according to law enforcement. Two people were arrested, one for throwing stones and the other for inciting unrest, they said. The police fired rubber bullets, according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the spot, and tear gas grenades, according to other witnesses.
Nearly three hundred injured in two weeks
An uneasy calm had returned to the scene early in the afternoon as a crowd of worshipers gathered for the last Friday of Ramadan, the month of Muslim fasting due to end early next week. Demonstrators continued to wave Palestinian flags and the Islamist movement Hamas there, noted an AFP journalist.
Over the past two weeks, violent clashes have injured nearly three hundred Palestinians in and around the Esplanade of the Mosques, Islam’s third holiest site and Judaism’s holiest site, known as the Mount of the Temple. This place is administered by Jordan, but its access is controlled by Israel.
This violence comes in a context of escalation after four attacks carried out in Israel since the end of March, which left fourteen dead, including an Israeli Arab policeman and two Ukrainians. Two of the attacks were perpetrated in the metropolis of Tel Aviv by Palestinians from the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
In the wake of these attacks, the Israeli army carried out several operations in the West Bank, punctuated by deadly clashes. A total of twenty-six Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs were killed, including attackers.
Rally in support of Palestinians in Iran
These new clashes take place while this Friday is also celebrated the Day of Al-Quds (“Jerusalem” in Arabic), launched by Iran in the wake of the Islamic revolution of 1979. Thousands of people demonstrated in Iran, an enemy of Israel, in support of the Palestinians.
On Thursday, tenors of the armed Islamist organizations of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, close to Iran, had held a rally in the Gaza stadium to call for ” defend “ Jerusalem and the esplanade of the Mosques. General Hossein Salami, leader of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, participated in this event by videoconference and affirmed that “The State of Israel will be defeated”.
The deployment of Israeli police forces and the presence on the esplanade during Ramadan of many Jews, authorized to visit the place at specific times but without praying there according to the status quo in force, were widely perceived by Palestinians and several countries in the region as a gesture of ” provocation “. Israel “will not change” the status quo on the esplanade of the Mosques, assured Sunday the head of Israeli diplomacy, Yaïr Lapid, who affirmed that the recent police interventions on the esplanade were “justified”.
