The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 22 people were wounded in the clashes, with three requiring treatment in hospital after being hit by rubber bullets.
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New clashes broke out Monday between Palestinians and Israeli police who stormed Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, as an expected increase in Jewish visitors to the site over the Sukkot holiday boosted tensions. “They feel free because no-one arrested them in the past”, Ahmed Tibi, Arab member of the Israeli parliament, said. A few Palestinians, however, accuse Israeli authorities of planning to institute a partition scheme under which Jewish worshippers would allowed to access parts of the compound – which Jews refer to as the “Temple Mount” – for certain hours of the day.
The OHCHR welcomed a decision by the government of the State of Palestine “to set up an investigative committee into the conduct of Palestinian police during this demonstration”.
Palestinians have accused Israeli police of sparking fresh clashes at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Numerous protests started off as non-violent and later developed into confrontations with the Israeli army, including in Bethlehem and Ramallah.
Fighting between Israeli police and Palestinians has broken out across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as a result of ongoing tensions at Temple Mount.
On September 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that his cabinet “has chose to authorize police to use live ammunition against people throwing stones and Molotov cocktails”.
“We refuse to normalise the visits [by Jewish Israelis] to the mosque because the next step is dividing it”, he said, alluding to the division of Hebron’s al-Ibrahimi Mosque into a Muslim section and a Jewish section. Israel added 800 officers to its Old City contingent, bringing the total number of police there to 3,500, according to Rosenfeld.
Several rockets have recently been fired from the Gaza Strip, prompting Israel to deploy its Iron Dome rocket defence system, and more than two thirds of Palestinians said they supported the continuing launching of rockets if the blockade does not end.
Since then, Israel has adopted a series of oppressive measures to force the Palestinians out of Al-Quds, including systematic demolition of their homes and building settlements.
Al Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam, is also the most sacred place in Judaism.
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Earlier, Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein had approved Netanyahu’s plan to change the rules of engagement and declare “war against stone-throwers and firebomb throwers” in the occupied Palestinian territories.
