At least five people were injured this Sunday in the vicinity of the Jerusalem Mosque Esplanade (also called the Temple Mount) amid new clashes between Palestinian youths and the Israeli Police; a new episode of the tension that has been going on in the area for the past few days, exacerbated by the coincidence of religious holidays.
The Israeli Police reported this Sunday that hundreds of young people, many of them masked, were accumulating rocks that they planned to use along with iron bars and improvised barricades to provoke riots and try to prevent non-Muslims from visiting the compound.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service confirmed at least five people injured for the time being when several Palestinian youths have begun to stone visitors' buses. The wounded have been taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the city with minor injuries, reports the 'Times of Israel'.
Two people were arrested in connection with these incidents.
The Esplanade of Mosques — the third holy place in Islam — rests on one of its sides on the Western Wall, the last vestige of the Jewish Solomon Temple that the most radical Jews intend to use as part of a Third Temple.
This year the tension has multiplied because the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coincides with Passover and Christian Holy Week and their acts in the city of Jerusalem.
More than 150 Palestinians were injured on Friday in clashes with Israeli forces on the Esplanade in one of the most serious incidents in weeks, which also resulted in some 400 detainees.
After the first clashes, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed himself “deeply concerned” at the escalation of violence in Jerusalem.
Guterres called on leaders “on all sides” to help “calm the situation.” “The provocations on the Holy Esplanade must cease now to prevent further escalation,” said the UN Secretary-General.
He also reiterated his call for “maintaining and respecting” the status quo in all other holy places in Jerusalem, and detailed that the United Nations is working “in close contact” as regional partners to calm the situation.
“The Secretary-General reiterated his commitment to helping Palestinians and Israelis resolve the conflict on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements,” the office of the UN Secretary-General added in a statement.
(With information from Europa Press)
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