The Palestinian Red Crescent condemned by Israel: “What is happening in Jerusalem is a major crime against worshipers,” the Prime Minister’s statement
Footage from inside the mosque showed Israeli officers beating people with their batons and rifle-butts, then arresting hundreds of Palestinians. Israeli police said they entered the mosque after “hundreds of rioters” tried to barricade themselves inside.
The Palestinian Red Crescent in Jerusalem said at least seven were injured during clashes outside the walls of the mosque and at least two of the injured were transferred to hospital, suffering from injuries sustained from rubber bullets and assault.
“When the police entered, stones were thrown at them, and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators,” according to the statement. Israeli police also released video of its forces entering and fireworks exploding.
The incident happened in the middle of the Muslim holiest month of the year, as hundreds of thousands of worshippers offer prayers at al-Aqsa. Jews are set to celebrate Passover on Wednesday evening.
It was condemned by the Palestinian leaders as well as other Arab countries. In a statement Wednesday, Palestine’s Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned the actions of the Israeli police, saying: “What is happening in Jerusalem is a major crime against worshipers.”
Shtayyeh said that Israel doesn’t want to learn from history that the storming of Al-Aqsa led to a revolution against the occupation.
The Head of Hamas’ political bureau said the violence was an “unprecedented crime” according to him.
Israeli rocket attacks on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 2006 Lebanon-Israel conflict: Israel’s defense official tells CNN
Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy has been the custodian of Jerusalem’s holy sites since 1924, and sees itself as the guarantor of the religious rights of Muslims and Christians in the city.
The mosque compound, frequently a flashpoint in tensions, is home to one of Islam’s most revered sites but also the holiest site in Judaism, known as the Temple Mount.
Dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, in a major escalation that comes amid tensions over Israeli police raids at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Later on Wednesday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck weapons manufacturing and storage sites in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas.
In the same period, at least 15 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, CNN records show – 14 civilians and a police officer who was hit by friendly fire after being stabbed by a Palestinian teenager while inspecting bus passengers.
There have been several small-scale rocket attacks from Lebanon in recent years that have prompted retaliatory strikes from Israel. There were no reported casualties in the incidents, with the largest death toll coming in an exchange of fire that killed two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper. The rocket attacks were carried out by Palestinian groups in Lebanon.
The Lebanese army told CNN it had no information to release publicly yet; the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah told CNN it would not comment at the moment. The incident comes a day after the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Beirut for meetings with Hezbollah officials.
The Lebanon-Israel conflict in 2006 was the most serious between the countries in 25 years. In an exchange of fire between Israelis and people in Lebanon around 1,200 people and 165 Israelis were killed. During the conflict, Hezbollah launched many rockets into Israeli territory.
The Israeli defense official who spoke to CNN told them Israel assumed Palestinian groups were behind the rocket attack and that the military was still figuring out what happened.
The National News Agency of Lebanon reported that Israeli shelling had targeted the outskirts of Tyre, but the official said it had not happened.
The International Defense Force’s High-Level Forum on the Status of the Libane-Borel Border Crisis from 2022 to 2022
In the spring of 2022, the IDF held a high-level seminar in order to brief journalists and policy makers on the situation around the Lebanon border.