Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police this Friday, April 15th, at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, caused 156 people to be injured.
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the clashes in the Old Town of East Jerusalem, a Palestinian sector occupied since 1967 by Israel, began early in the day, when dozens of hooded men carrying Palestinian and Islamic resistance movement flags entered the Temple Mount with stones, forcing the police to enter the site to disperse the crowd and remove the stones.
The Esplanade is located next to the Al-Aqsa mosque, built on a hill that is one of the holiest sites for Jews, the Temple Mount, with authorities expecting tens of thousands of Palestinians at Al-Aqsa for Muslim prayers this Friday.
Arab League blames Israel for clashes at the Esplanade of Mosques
Arab countries blamed the “Israeli occupation forces” for the clashes at the Esplanade of Mosques in East Jerusalem.
The clashes, between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police, coincided with the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Arab League Secretary-General, Egypt’s Ahmed Abulgheit, said the Israeli “attacks on the faithful” Muslims represent a “continuation of the series of Israeli abuses and provocations aimed at dividing Al-Aqsa, spatially and temporally.”
Ra’am warns Temple Mount violence threatens teetering coalition; PM holds assessment https://t.co/Ukk2rKgwMH
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) April 15, 2022
“Continued incursions by settlers and extremist gangs are tolerated, while Palestinians are prevented from practicing their rituals, threatening to aggravate the situation in a dangerous way,” Abulgheit said in a statement released by the Arab League quoted by Spanish news agency EFE.
Abulgheit called on the international community to take responsibility for what he called the “irresponsible behavior of the occupation government,” in a reference to Israel.
He claimed that the right to worship “is guaranteed by international law and that Israeli attacks and arrests will not prevent Palestinians from exercising their right.”
Jordan described the “attack by Israeli troops on worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque” as a “dangerous escalation,” according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
The Jordanian government urged Israeli authorities to “immediately withdraw” their troops from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.
Jordan administers the Esplanade of Mosques, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located, but access to the site, right next to the Wailing Wall, is controlled by Israel.
The violence in Jerusalem followed a series of attacks in Israel and Israeli operations in the West Bank, another territory occupied since 1967 by the Jewish state.
Since March 22, Israel has been hit by four attacks, the first two by Israeli Arabs linked to the extremist Islamic State group and the last two by Palestinians in the Jenin area of the West Bank, with at least 14 people killed in those attacks.
