JERUSALEM: Fresh clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound wounded 42 people on the last Friday of Ramazan, following weeks of violence at the flashpoint religious site.

The Palestinian Red Crescent, which gave the toll, said no one was seriously hurt but 22 people were taken to hospital.

Israeli police released footage that showed young men on the compound hurling stones and fireworks in Friday’s early hours. Officers entered the site at dawn.

A police statement said they went in to contain “rioters and lawbreakers” some of whom were trying to throw stones down towards the Western Wall, the sacred Jewish site below Al Aqsa.

Police said officers used “riot dispersal means” to contain the unrest and that two people had been arrested, one for throwing stones and the other one for “inciting the mob”.

An AFP journalist said Israeli police fired rubber-coated bullets while a witness said they also used tear gas.

An uneasy calm had been restored at the compound following the unrest that surrounded morning prayers, but tensions remained high.

In the early afternoon, a crowd of Muslim worshippers gathered at Al Aqsa.

Some people waved Palestinian flags and the colours of the Gaza Strip-based Hamas militant group, an AFP journalist said.

Over the past two weeks, nearly 300 Palestinians have been hurt in clashes at Al Aqsa, Islam’s third-holiest site which is also the most holy site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. The site is located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed, in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

In an apparent attempt to ease tensions, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has stressed that the government is committed to the status quo at the compound, meaning an adherence to long-standing convention that only Muslims are allowed to pray there.

Jews are allowed to visit the Temple Mount. Muslim leaders have, however, been angered by a recent uptick in such visits.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2022