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JERUSALEM — Israeli police stopped Muslim worshipers from getting into the Aqsa Mosque compound early Sunday morning and transient clashes broke out in close by facet streets, two days after violence erupted on the holy web site.
The police, in search of to stop contact between Muslims and Jews who had entered the compound, confined Muslims who had been already inside it to a central a part of the positioning. They supplied Jewish worshipers with a police escort as they walked across the perimeter of the positioning, generally known as the Temple Mount to Jews, which was the situation of an historic temple thought of the holiest place in Judaism.
Earlier, Palestinians had gathered close to the doorway utilized by non-Muslims to enter the positioning, blocking a part of the route that’s often utilized by Jews to discreetly pray close to the place the traditional Jewish temple stood.
Clashes later broke out within the facet streets across the mosque compound, as police used batons and sound grenades to drive again Muslims who had been making an attempt to enter. Palestinians shouted, “With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for Al Aqsa.”
Tensions are sometimes excessive on the complicated in Jerusalem’s Previous Metropolis, which is sacred to each Islam and Judaism. However they’re significantly tense for the time being due to a uncommon overlap between Ramadan and Passover, which has prompted extra Muslims and Jews to enter the positioning than traditional.
Muslims take into account efforts by some Jewish activists to hope furtively on the web site to be a provocation, as a result of they violate the longstanding Israeli coverage of permitting Jews to go to however not pray. In addition they worry that Jewish prayer there’ll give momentum to campaigns by small extremist teams to construct a brand new Jewish temple on the web site.
Many Muslims have additionally been angered by current efforts by extremist Jews to enter the compound with younger goats to make a Passover sacrifice. The police mentioned final week that that they had arrested some activists who had been planning such a sacrifice.
On Friday, Israeli riot police, firing rubber-tipped bullets and stun grenades, stormed the primary mosque on the compound to detain lots of of Palestinians, a lot of whom had been throwing stones at them. Greater than 150 folks had been injured.
The current clashes have adopted a wave of Palestinian assaults on Israelis and lethal Israeli raids within the occupied West Financial institution.
Related clashes on the mosque final 12 months contributed to the outbreak of an 11-day conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza led by Hamas, the Islamist motion that controls the strip.
This 12 months, nevertheless, each Israel and Hamas have signaled that they don’t seem to be in search of an escalation. Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas official, mentioned on Saturday that either side had conveyed by way of Qatari officers that they didn’t need a new conflagration.
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