WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Fresh attacks by Zionist troops erupted at Al-Quds’ Al-Aqsa mosque early Friday and injured scores of Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The latest outbreak of violence in Islam’s third holiest site came on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Most of those injured suffered “upper-body injuries” the Red Crescent said, adding that 22 people had been taken to hospital.
Witnesses said Zionist troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
Tensions remain high at the site in the heart of A-Quds’ old, walled city, part of Zionist-occupied East Al-Quds.
Over the past two weeks, nearly 300 Palestinians have been injured in Zionist incursions at the Al-Aqsa compound.
Muslim leaders have been angered by a recent uptick in the number of Zionist settlers entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The longstanding convention has been that only Muslims are allowed to pray at the compound, but, according to the Al-Quds Islamic Waqf, nearly 3,700 Zonist settlers have entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound over the past week.
Meanwhile, some 250,000 Muslim worshippers prayed at Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday night to mark the 27th evening of the holy month of Ramadan as a show of unity among Palestinian against the occupying regime.
The Department of Islamic Endowments in occupied East Al-Quds said 250,000 Palestinian worshippers from the West Bank, including occupied East Al-Quds, flocked to Al-Aqsa Mosque to commemorate Laylat Al-Qadr – the Night of Power, when the Qur’an was first revealed – amid strict measures by the Zionist regime.
Palestinians from the occupied West Bank set off early to travel through the occupation’s illegal checkpoints to access the holy site.