Al-Aqsa mosque violence: Fresh clashes erupt on Jerusalem Day, hundreds injured

More than 275 Palestinians and at least 12 Israeli officers were reported injured after fresh clashes erupted outside one of Islam’s holiest Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Jews as Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, Palestinian Red Crescent emergency services reported. Incursions intensified between the Israeli security forces and the Palestinians that exchanged rounds of gunfire, stun grenades, rubber pellets as protesters hurled back the projectiles, stones, and objects at the armed forces on the adjoining road near the Western Wall during Israel’s commemoration of the Jerusalem Day with ‘Flag March’ on Monday. As many as 80 were rushed to the hospitals severely wounded. 

Israel celebrates the occupation of parts of the city during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war on Jerusalem Day, and Monday’s celebration witnessed hundreds of flag-bearing Israeli youth marching through Muslim-dominated areas amid the heightened tensions over the forced evictions of Palestinians from the disputed Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. This was assumed by the Palestinians as ‘deliberate provocation’ as the Palestinian Arabs and Jews nationalists broke into armed confrontations ensuing violence, as the Israeli police in riot gear attempted to disperse the revolting mobs. Among the Muslim worshippers and the right-wing Jews, the Israeli settlers and Palestinians fighting legal battles over the land occupation and the appeals in Israel Supreme Court against pending evictions. 

[Credit: Twitter/@Aghy4d]

The week long tensions simmered earlier, during the holy month of Ramadan, Israeli armed forces barricaded the traditional gathering plaza outside Damascus Gate in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. This triggered one of the worst violence known between Palestinians and Arabs, shortly after which, the Israeli police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai ordered the barricading to be removed from the plaza leading to Al-Aqsa inside Jerusalem's walled Old City. In one of the deadliest attacks two days ago, Israeli authorities fatally shoot what they described as two Palestinian militants and injured the third after they opened fire on an Israeli military base in the occupied West Bank. Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, meanwhile escalated the conflict further. 

In a statement issued Monday, the Israeli police alleged that the “extremists” and radical groups were behind the violent escalations, and that it would “not be allowed to the extremists to harm the safety and security of the public”.

Former Military Intelligence official had 'warned' 

Earlier today, the United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan expressed "serious concerns” about the violence and unrest in Jerusalem’s Old City and ongoing confrontations between the Palestinians and the Israeli security forces at the Haram al-Sharif or the Temple Mount. Sullivan had encouraged the Israeli government to pursue “appropriate measures” to ensure calm during Jerusalem Day commemorations. According to Haaretz daily, the former head of Military Intelligence and former top Defense Ministry official, Amos Gilad had warned on the Army Radio that the security forces have cautioned the Israeli cabinet that holding of the contentious Flag March might dismantle the stability further. “I would eliminate anything that creates friction. Jerusalem is currently a powder keg that could explode,” Gilad said.

[All Images Credit: The Associated Press]