After clashing with Israeli police at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount compound on Sunday morning, Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves inside the al-Aqsa mosque overnight, stockpiling stones and other projectiles.
Advertisement
Sporadic clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians hit Jerusalem’s Old City and a checkpoint outside Ramallah on Tuesday, with tensions heightened as Palestinians were reportedly denied access to al-Aqsa Mosque for the third consecutive day.
“We note with concern allegations that Israeli security forces may, in a few cases, have used excessive force against Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem in recent days”, he stated.
Jews celebrate Sukkot, or the Fest of Tabernacles, to commemorate their journey through the Sinai wilderness to the Holy Land after their Exodus from Egyptian slavery.
The hilltop compound, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, was largely quiet Tuesday.
Witnesses on the ground in occupied Jerusalem (holy city of Quds) told Al Jazeera that the Israeli police entered the mosque shortly before 7am local time (0400 GMT) on Monday.
The clashes erupted at the holy site on Sunday, the last day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. But calls by a group of religious Jews to visit the site, coupled with periodic Israeli restrictions on Muslim visits, have inflamed tensions.
According to Biblical tradition, the first and second Jewish temples were located at the site and destroyed by the Babylonians and the Romans.
Several Muslims accuse far-right Jews of provoking them by praying at the site.
But to achieve lasting stability in the Middle East, Obama can not turn a blind eye to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Saeb Erekat, the secretary of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, said. At least 12 Palestinian protesters were injured byIsraeli forces during the Ramaballah riots, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.
Palestinian Knesset members called for unity between the West Bank-based Fatah party and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Efforts by a hardline Jewish minority to build a new temple there have further stoked suspicions.
On the evening of Monday September 14, Alex Levlovich was driving back from the Rosh-Hashana Seder, the celebration of the Jewish new year, along the road that separates the Jewish neighbourhood of Armon Hanatziv and the Palestinian neighbourhood of Tsur Bahir in East Jerusalem when the window of his vehicle was smashed by a stone.
Al-Maawda said Israel must understand that the Palestinian cause will not be obliterated despite all the difficulties which the region is undergoing, because it is an Islamic and Arab issue that is rooted in the Arab and Muslim conscience.
Advertisement
For their part, the worshippers threw stones and hurled fire crackers at the police, the witnesses said.
