JERRUSALEM: In a barbaric action against innocent Palestinians Israeli police arrested more than 350 people during the early hours of Wednesday after clashes at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque, a police spokesperson said.
In a statement, police said they had “arrested and removed over 350 individuals that violently barricaded” themselves inside the mosque in the Old City of annexed east Jerusalem.
Those arrested included “masked individuals, stone and firework hurlers/throwers, and individuals suspected of desecrating the mosque,” it said.
Israeli police attacked dozens of worshippers in the mosque’s compound before dawn in the wee hours of the day in what Israeli police said was a response to rioting.
The incident sparked protests across the occupied West Bank and the Israeli military claimed nine rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel after sirens blared in southern towns.
Violence in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem has surged over the past year and there is concern that tensions could escalate this month, as the holy month of Ramazan coincides with Judaism’s Passover and Christian Easter.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said seven Palestinians sustained wounds from rubber-tipped bullets and beatings by the Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. It added that Israeli forces were preventing its medics from reaching the mosque.
“I was sitting on a chair reciting [Holy Quran],” an elderly woman told Reuters outside the mosque, struggling to catch her breath. “They hurled stun grenades, one of them hit my chest,” she said as she began to cry.-AFP/Reuters /UNS
