Palestine

After Israeli provocation in Al-Aqsa Mosque late September, trepidation of religious Jews trying to intrude and take over the Islamic holy site had been brought out. The recent month was a holy period for Jews celebrating three of their most important holidays, but also a time of raised tension in Jerusalem and its neighborhoods.

During last two weeks sporadic skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians took place due to intensified presence of Israeli troops in the city and restrictions imposed on Palestinians. Access to the al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) was forbidden to all Palestinian man under the age of 50.

The radical Islamic Hamas movement called for a “day of rage” on Friday, to protect holy compound of Al-Aqsa. Israel maintained restrictions preventing hundreds of worshippers from reaching the mosque. Many of them were stopped and barred just outside the Old City gates by Israeli police. The troops inside Old City established extra checkpoints were seen turning back Palestinians who do not live or work there. However, tourists or Jews wanted to pray at the Western Wall, where allowed to enter.

On the contrary, Fatah party called for ”one-day peaceful protest”. According to general strike most of the shops inside Old City were closed.

Apart from Old City itself, which remained calm and quite, clashes between Israeli riot forces and Palestinian youth occurred in East Jerusalem neighborhood Ras al-Amudin and Qalandya checkpoint, near the city of Ramallah.

On the afternoon, the friction started on Qalandya checkpoint. For few hours the area resembled war zone. Israeli border soldiers were shooting rubber bullets and multitude of tearing gas canisters against group of young Palestinian stone-throwers. The clashes affected the nearby refugee camp, as tearing gas bombs were fired also inside inhabited area.

See also:

http://palestinemonitor.org/spip/sp…