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Israel police clash with worshippers at al-Aqsa mosque Palestinians arrested and injured in Israeli raid on al-Aqsa mosque
(about 3 hours later)
Reports that hundreds were arrested and several injured early on Wednesday after raid that police say was sparked by rioting Violence after police raid triggers West Bank clashes, cross-border strikes in Gaza Strip and fears of escalation
Israeli police entered Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound before dawn on Wednesday and clashed with worshippers, in what police said was a response to rioting that set off a furious reaction across the West Bank and cross border strikes in Gaza. At least 14 Palestinians have been injured and hundreds arrested in an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, triggering clashes in the West Bank, cross-border strikes in the Gaza Strip and fears of wider escalation over the holiday period.
At least nine rockets were later fired from Gaza, prompting airstrikes from Israel, which struck what it said were Hamas training camps, setting off ground-shaking explosions that were heard across the blockaded coastal strip. The violence in the early hours of Wednesday – during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday – comes after a year of spiralling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and carries echoes of 2021, when clashes at Jerusalem’s holiest site helped trigger a 10-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement in control of Gaza.
Witnesses said Israeli tanks also shelled Hamas positions along the border fence in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Israeli police said in a statement that security units were forced to enter a prayer hall in the Temple Mount compound, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sherif, after what it called masked agitators barricaded themselves inside the mosque after nightly Ramadan prayers.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 12 Palestinians sustained wounds from rubber-tipped bullets and beatings in clashes with Israeli police at al-Aqsa. It added that Israeli forces were preventing its medics from reaching the area. In response, protesters in the occupied West Bank town of Beit Ummar burned tyres and threw rocks and explosive devices at Israeli soldiers, an army statement said. Forces returned live fire after a soldier was shot and wounded, it added.
In the blockaded Gaza Strip, at least nine rockets were fired towards Israel, five of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system and four of which fell into uninhabited areas. Israel retaliated with airstrikes it said hit Hamas training camps, and witnesses said tanks also shelled Hamas positions along the border fence. No casualties were reported on either side.
Hamas did not claim responsibility for the rocket launches, but the group’s deputy, Saleh Al-Arouri, said that “attacking Islamic sanctities will have a great price and we will burn the ground under their [Israel’s] feet”.
By late Wednesday morning, tensions appeared to have subsided.
Unverified video of the confrontations at al-Aqsa showed police hitting people with the butts of rifles and batons, and Palestinians throwing fireworks and firecrackers in the darkness. Palestinians also threw stones at officers, according to the police.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 14 people sustained wounds from rubber-tipped bullets, beatings, teargas inhalation and stun grenades, and added that Israeli forces had preventing its medics from reaching the area. Firas al-Jibrini, a Palestinian lawyer, said police arrested about 500 people who were taken for questioning.
“In the yard to the eastern part of the compound, the police fired teargas and stun grenades, it was a scene that I can’t describe,” said Fahmi Abbas, a worshipper at the mosque. “Then they stormed in and started beating everyone. They detained people and put the young men face down on the ground while they continued beating them.”“In the yard to the eastern part of the compound, the police fired teargas and stun grenades, it was a scene that I can’t describe,” said Fahmi Abbas, a worshipper at the mosque. “Then they stormed in and started beating everyone. They detained people and put the young men face down on the ground while they continued beating them.”
Israeli police said in a statement that security units were forced to enter the compound after what it called masked agitators locked themselves inside the mosque with fireworks, sticks and stones. “Following many continuous attempts to remove the individuals from the mosque using dialogue failed, police were forced to enter the compound in order to remove the individuals,” Israeli police said.
“When the police entered, stones were thrown at them and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators,” the statement said, adding that a police officer was wounded in the leg. The Temple Mount, located in occupied East Jerusalem and holy to both Jews and Muslims, is regularly the scene of violence. This year’s overlap of Ramadan and Passover, however, increases the possibility of friction as the city hosts an unusually large influx of pilgrims.
Palestinian lawyer Firas al-Jibrini said police arrested about 500 people who were taken for questioning. Muslim worshippers often spend the night in the mosque compound during Ramadan: on Wednesday, there were particular fears that Jewish visitors would attempt to carry out a traditional Passover sacrifice of a lamb in the area, upsetting the sensitive religious status quo.
The incident drew a sharp reaction from Arab countries. Jordan and Egypt, both involved in recent US-backed efforts to de-escalate tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, issued separate statements strongly condemning the incident, while Saudi Arabia, with whom Israel hopes to normalise ties, said Israel’s “storming” of Al-Aqsa undermined peace efforts. Under a longstanding compromise, which Israel says it is dedicated to upholding, non-Muslims are allowed to visit but not pray at the site, and any perceived attempt to alter the arrangement acts as a lightning rod for violence. In recent years, Jewish visitors have increasingly prayed more or less openly in the compound, sometimes under police protection.
The Palestinian leadership condemned Israel’s attacks on worshippers, which they described as a crime. The Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed organisation that has managed the complex since the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories began in 1967, called Israel’s actions on Wednesday a “flagrant assault on the identity and the function of the mosque as a place of worship for Muslims alone”.
“We warn the occupation against crossing red lines at holy sites, which will lead to a big explosion,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian leadership also condemned the attacks on worshippers, which they described as a crime. “We warn the occupation against crossing red lines at holy sites, which will lead to a big explosion,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Tension had already been high in East Jerusalem and the West Bank for months, and fears of further violence were fuelled by the convergence of Ramadan and the Passover. The incident drew a sharp reaction from Arab countries, including neighbours Jordan and Egypt. Both nations were involved in recent US-backed efforts to de-escalate one of the bloodiest chapters in the region since the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, of the 2000s. Saudi Arabia, with whom Israel hopes to normalise ties, said Israel’s “storming” of Al-Aqsa undermined peace efforts.
Such confrontations at the contested holy compound, the third holiest shrine in Islam that is also the most sacred site in Judaism and referred to as the Temple Mount, have sparked deadly cross-border wars between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers in the past, the last was in 2021. At least 88 Palestinians, of whom about half were militants and half civilians, and 16 Israelis, of whom 15 were civilians, have been killed since January, according to rights groups, making 2023 the deadliest start to the year in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in two decades.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged over the last year, as the Israeli military has carried out near-nightly raids on Palestinian cities, towns and villages and as Palestinians have staged numerous attacks against Israelis. Agencies contributed to this report
At least 88 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, according to an Associated Press tally. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 15 people in the same period.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report