Violence resumes at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque for a second straight night
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Salma Hossein
- . April 6, 2023
- . Update: April 7, 2023 12:24 am
Although less intense than the previous night, violence still resumed for a second straight night in Jerusalem on Wednesday as Muslims marked the holy month of Ramadan and Jews started the weeklong Passover holiday.
A number of Palestinian worshippers barricaded themselves inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, sitting in a hilltop compound considered sacred by both Muslims and Jews, while Israeli police used force to remove several of them.
Palestinian militants in Gaza responded with rocket fire on southern Israel, prompting Israeli airstrikes and raising fears of a wider confrontation.
The Islamic Waqf authorities, responsible for managing the compound, said police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the crowd, while the Israeli police said several “law-breaking juveniles” had introduced chaos, throwing rocks at officers.
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According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 50 people sustained injuries in the latest violence. A Palestinian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian Authority was in contact with officials in the US, Egypt, Jordan, and at the UN in an effort to de-escalate the situation.
Most of the Palestinians arrested were released by the early Wednesday afternoon, with some describing the reportedly unsatisfactory conditions at the police station like not getting medical attention or access to water or a toilet for more than six hours.
The Israeli-Palestinian violence has seen massive growth over the past year. While an Associated Press tally shows Israeli fire has killed at least 88 Palestinians this year, at least 15 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian attacks in the same period.
While Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants, stone-throwing youths and bystanders uninvolved in conflicts were also among the dead.
