Palestinian Worshippers, Zionist Troops Clash at Al-Aqsa
AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Clashes between Palestinian worshippers and Zionist troops broke out on Sunday morning at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds after dozens of Zionists arrived at the holy site.
The occupying regime’s police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld claimed in a statement that police broke into the compound after "stones and chairs were thrown" by Muslim worshippers at the site. A separate police statement said several Palestinians were arrested.
The violence erupted after the police allowed some 120 Zionists to enter the site. Hundreds more were waiting at the Mughrabi Bridge, the entrance to the compound for non-Muslim visitors, before the clashes began.
It was the first time in three decades that the occupying regime’s police allowed Jewish visitors into the flashpoint compound during the last days of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan when large numbers of Muslim worshippers gather at the site.
Allowing Jews to enter the compound coincided with al-Quds Day, an annual Israeli commemoration of the reunification of al-Quds after the 1967 war which falls on June 1 to June 2 in 2019.
The Hamas resistance movement, the runner of the Gaza Strip, condemned the incident.
"The attack of worshippers by Israeli forces marks an escalation and a violation of holy sites," Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior spokesman for Hamas, said in a statement.
He warned that the move "will have consequences" and urged the international community to interfere to halt the escalation.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is holy to both Muslims and Jews. Under a long-held status quo, Jews are allowed to visit the site but not to pray there.
In recent years, ultra-nationalist Zionists have been challenging the status quo, demanding the regime increase the numbers of Jewish visitors to the site and allow prays.
Tensions between Palestinians and Zionists were high after a 16-year-old Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Zionist troops near the West Bank separation wall on Friday while a Palestinian man was shot dead in East al-Quds’s Old City.
The Zionist regime seized East al-Quds in the 1967 Middle East War, along with the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It later annexed East al-Quds and claimed it as part of its eternal and indivisible capital, in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Palestinians consider East al-Quds as the capital of their future state.
Palestinians stand near Zionist policemen as clashes erupted with Palestinians on al-Quds Day on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in al-Quds’s Old City June 2, 2019.
The occupying regime’s police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld claimed in a statement that police broke into the compound after "stones and chairs were thrown" by Muslim worshippers at the site. A separate police statement said several Palestinians were arrested.
The violence erupted after the police allowed some 120 Zionists to enter the site. Hundreds more were waiting at the Mughrabi Bridge, the entrance to the compound for non-Muslim visitors, before the clashes began.
It was the first time in three decades that the occupying regime’s police allowed Jewish visitors into the flashpoint compound during the last days of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan when large numbers of Muslim worshippers gather at the site.
Allowing Jews to enter the compound coincided with al-Quds Day, an annual Israeli commemoration of the reunification of al-Quds after the 1967 war which falls on June 1 to June 2 in 2019.
The Hamas resistance movement, the runner of the Gaza Strip, condemned the incident.
"The attack of worshippers by Israeli forces marks an escalation and a violation of holy sites," Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior spokesman for Hamas, said in a statement.
He warned that the move "will have consequences" and urged the international community to interfere to halt the escalation.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is holy to both Muslims and Jews. Under a long-held status quo, Jews are allowed to visit the site but not to pray there.
In recent years, ultra-nationalist Zionists have been challenging the status quo, demanding the regime increase the numbers of Jewish visitors to the site and allow prays.
Tensions between Palestinians and Zionists were high after a 16-year-old Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Zionist troops near the West Bank separation wall on Friday while a Palestinian man was shot dead in East al-Quds’s Old City.
The Zionist regime seized East al-Quds in the 1967 Middle East War, along with the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It later annexed East al-Quds and claimed it as part of its eternal and indivisible capital, in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Palestinians consider East al-Quds as the capital of their future state.
Palestinians stand near Zionist policemen as clashes erupted with Palestinians on al-Quds Day on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in al-Quds’s Old City June 2, 2019.