Israeli police clash with Palestinians at Jerusalem holy site

Monday's unrest is the latest in a series of confrontations between Israeli authorities and Palestinians in Jerusalem. 1:48

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Israeli police firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site on Monday, the latest in a series of confrontations that threatened to push the contested city toward wider conflict.

More than a dozen tear gas canisters and stun grenades landed in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, located in a compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims, said an Associated Press photographer at the scene. Smoke rose in front of the mosque and the iconic golden-domed shrine on the site, and rocks littered the surrounding plaza. Inside one area of the compound, shoes and debris lay scattered over ornate carpets.

More than 305 Palestinians were hurt, including 228 who went to hospitals and clinics for treatment, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Seven of the injured were in serious condition. Police said 21 officers were hurt, including three who were hospitalized.

Monday's confrontation was the latest after weeks of mounting tensions between Palestinians and Israeli troops in the Old City of Jerusalem, the emotional centre of their conflict. The clashes have come during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, already a time of heightened religious sensitivities.

Most recently, the tensions have been fuelled by an eviction plan in an Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem where Israeli settlers have waged a lengthy legal battle to take over properties.
 

Hundreds of Palestinians and about two-dozen police officers have been hurt over the past few days in clashes at the sacred compound, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The compound, which has been the trigger for rounds of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the past, is Islam's third-holiest site and considered Judaism's holiest.

An AP photographer at the scene said that early Monday morning, protesters had barricaded gates to the walled compound with wooden boards and scrap metal. Sometime after 7. a.m., clashes erupted, with those inside throwing stones at police deployed outside. Police entered the compound, firing tear gas, rubber-coated steel pellets and stun grenades.

At some point, about 400 people, both young protesters and older worshippers, were inside the carpeted Al-Aqsa Mosque. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades into the mosque.

Court ruling on evictions postponed

The UN Security Council scheduled closed consultations Monday on the soaring tensions in Jerusalem. Diplomats said the meeting was requested by Tunisia, the Arab representative on the council.

The day began with the police announcing that Jews would be barred from visiting the Al-Aqsa compound on Monday, which Israelis mark as Jerusalem Day with a flag-waving parade through the Old City and its Muslim Quarter to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. The marchers celebrate Israel's capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.
 

Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the 1967 war. It later annexed East Jerusalem, home to the city's most sensitive holy sites, and considers the entire city its capital. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state, with East Jerusalem as their capital.

Israel's Supreme Court postponed a key ruling Monday that could have led to the evictions of dozens of Palestinians from their homes, citing the "circumstances."

• More than 200 Palestinians hurt in night of clashes in Jerusalem, medics say

• More than 100 injured as Palestinians and Israeli police clash at Al-Aqsa mosque, elsewhere in Jerusalem

The Israeli crackdown and planned evictions have drawn harsh condemnations from Israel's Arab allies and expressions of concern from the U.S., European Union and United Nations.

Late Sunday, the U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, and urged calm.
 

A White House statement said that Sullivan called on Israel to to "pursue appropriate measures to ensure calm" and expressed the U.S.'s "serious concerns" about the ongoing violence and planned evictions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against the criticism Monday, describing Israel's actions in Jerusalem as a law-and-order issue. Netanyahu said Israel is determined to ensure the rights of worship for all and that this "requires from time to time stand up and stand strong as Israeli police and our security forces are doing now."

Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Netanyahu, claimed in a tweet that "extremist Palestinians planned well in advance to carry out riots" at the holy site, sharing photos of mounds of stones and wooden barricades inside the compound.

Ayman Odeh, a leading Arab politician in Israel, blamed the violence on Israel's discriminatory policies toward the Palestinians and said it had provoked the violence. "Wherever you find occupation, you will find resistance," he said at a news conference in Sheikh Jarrah, near the homes whose residents are under threat of eviction.
 

The tensions in Jerusalem have threatened to reverberate throughout the region.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired several barrages of rockets into Israel, and protesters allied with the ruling Hamas militant group have launched dozens of incendiary balloons into Israel, setting off fires across the southern part of the country.

• Hamas slams 'coup' after President Mahmoud Abbas delays Palestinian elections

"The occupier plays with fire, and tampering with Jerusalem is very dangerous," Saleh Arouri, a top Hamas official, told the group's Al-Aqsa TV station.

In response, COGAT, the Israeli Defence Ministry organ responsible for crossings with the Gaza Strip, announced Monday that it was closing the Erez crossing to all but humanitarian and exceptional cases until further notice.

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