At least 156 people, including three Israeli policemen, were injured this Friday during clashes on the Esplanade of Mosques in Jerusalem, coinciding with the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and against the backdrop of growing tension in the area.
Clashes with Israeli police officers began in the morning and resulted in more than 150 injured, according to the emergency service Red Crescent, which specified that this figure corresponds to those who had to be taken to nearby hospitals or clinics for medical attention.
The Israeli Police reported the arrest of “hundreds of rioters” and added that three of its officers were injured by the throwing of stones.
A police spokesman said that the incidents began this morning with the throwing of stones and fireworks by hundreds of Palestinian protesters who had come to the site carrying flags of the Palestinian National Authority and the Islamist Hamas movement. Faced with this, he added, the troops waited for the end of the morning prayer to intervene and disperse the protesters, triggering clashes.
The incidents took place not only in uncovered areas of the Esplanade but also within the Al Aqsa Mosque itself, the third holiest place in Islam and rarely accessed by Israeli security forces.
Israeli security forces said that “violent rioters” barricaded themselves inside the mosque and continued to “incite violence”.
These events take place in a context of growing tension in the region, after a week of heavy violence in the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli Army has carried out multiple raids following a series of terrorist attacks in recent weeks, several of them lethal.
Until today, the city of Jerusalem had been left out of major incidents, which included four serious attacks in Israel and multiple military operations on West Bank territory.
Construction in the 7th century
The esplanade stretches over 14 hectares in the upper part of Jerusalem's Old City. It is located in the eastern part of the city, annexed by Israel in 1967, and which the Palestinians want to turn into the capital of the State to which they aspire.
The place, called by the Muslims Al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque (the Far) since it is the most remote shrine where, according to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad would have attended. The Dome of the Rock rises above the place where the prophet would have ascended to heaven.
The esplanade is the third holy place in Islam after the Grand Mosque of Mecca, and the Mosque of the Prophet of Medina, in Saudi Arabia.
Its construction began in the seventh century after the capture of Jerusalem by the caliph Omar. It is built on the site of the Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans in the year 70, and whose only vestige is the Western Wall.
Named by the Jews Har HaBayit (Temple Mount), the esplanade is the holiest place in Judaism. But most of the faithful do not go to it because the rabbinate forbids them access, for fear that they will step on and desacralize the holy place.
(With information from EFE and AFP)
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