صراط عشق صراط عشق
Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Al-Quds on Friday as thousands gathered for prayers during the holy month of Ramadan. Medics said more than 150 Palestinians were wounded in the most serious clashes at the site in nearly a year.
The holy site has often been the epicenter of Palestinian unrest amid Israeli provocation, and tensions were already heightened. Clashes at the site last year helped spark an 11-day war with Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip.
The clashes come at a particularly sensitive time. Ramadan this year coincides with Passover, a major weeklong Jewish holiday beginning Friday at sundown, and Christian holy week, which culminates on Easter Sunday. The holidays are expected to bring tens of thousands of faithful into Al-Quds’ Old City, home to major sites sacred to all three religions.
Hours after the clashes began, the Zionist regime said it had arrested “hundreds” of suspects. The mosque was re-opened, and some 60,000 people attended the main Friday prayers midday after heroic resistance by the Palestinians, according to the Waqf, the Islamic endowment that administers the site.
After prayers, thousands of Palestinians marched around the esplanade, chanting “with our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Al-Aqsa,” in addition to slogans in support of resistance groups in the Gaza Strip.
The clashes began after Israeli troops entered the compound in force, setting off a wider conflagration. Palestinians view any large deployment of police at Al-Aqsa as a provocation.
Palestinians threw rocks and fireworks, and Zionist forces fired tear gas and stun grenades on the sprawling esplanade surrounding the mosque. Dozens of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the mosque as they fought Israeli security forces.
Israeli troops later entered the mosque and arrested people inside.
The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said it treated 152 people, many of them wounded by rubber-coated bullets or stun grenades.
Video footage showed Zionist forces beating a photographer for the Waqf with batons before knocking him to ground and kicking him. The Waqf said the photographer, Rami Khatib, suffered a broken hand.
The Israeli military said three officers were wounded from “massive stone-throwing,” with two evacuated from the scene for treatment.
Neighboring Jordan, which has
custodianship over the holy site, and the Palestinian Authority issued a joint statement hitting out at the Zionist regime for “a dangerous and condemnable escalation that threatens to explode the situation.” Egypt also condemned the “Israeli raid.”
The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. It has been a major flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades and was the epicenter of the 2000-2005 Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
The Zionist regime occupied East Al-Quds, including the Old City, in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city to be the capital of a future state including the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel also occupied during the war nearly 55 years ago.
Tensions have soared in recent weeks, which have seen 14 people Zionists killed inside Occupied Palestine in retaliatory attacks. Israeli troops have carried out a wave of arrests and military operations across the occupied West Bank, setting off clashes with Palestinians.
At least 25 Palestinians have been martyred, including an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appears to have been a bystander.
Weeks of protests and clashes in and around Al-Aqsa during Ramadan last year helped ignite a fourth Gaza war between the occupying regime of Israel and the Palestinians.
Hamas condemned what it said were “brutal attacks” on worshippers at Al-Aqsa, saying the occupying regime of Israel would bear “all the consequences.”
“We salute our people in the occupied city of Al-Quds and the Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque for defending this holy site and for their heroic confrontation with the Zionist occupation forces,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.
“Our nation will stand up to come to the aid of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its worshipers, and just as they won all their fights against this regime, they will also defeat the occupiers in this battle,” Barhoum stressed.
“Our people in Al-Quds are not alone in their battle in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, but the whole Palestinian nation and the heroic resistance groups, as well as their vigilant forces and children of the freedom-seeking nation, are by their side.”
Earlier this week, Hamas and other resistance groups in Gaza had called on Palestinians to camp out at the Al-Aqsa Mosque over the weekend. Palestinians have long feared that Israel plans to take over the site or partition it.
A Zionist group recently called on members to bring animals to the site in order to sacrifice them for Passover, offering cash rewards for those who succeeded or even tried. The call was widely circulated by Palestinians on social media, along with calls for Muslims to prevent any sacrifices from taking place.
