Clashes Erupt In Israel On Palestinian ‘Day Of Rage’

Israeli authorities have placed restrictions on Muslim visitors to the holy site.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called for the reformation of a unified national leadership in occupied Jerusalem, in order to confront the systematic war waged by the Zionist occupation of the city and its holy sites, especially as the situation holds the potential for the outbreak of a massive uprising, behind which all must unite and participate.

The incidents followed heightened tensions in Jerusalem’s Old City, which was flooded with police who allowed only male worshippers over the age of 40 to attend Friday prayers at the iconic Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam but which is also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

The policemen were attacked on Friday near the area in Jerusalem where an Israeli man died earlier in the week after Palestinians pelted his vehicle with rocks. The IDF also reported that one Palestinian was lightly wounded after being shot in the leg with a Ruger rifle in the West Bank village of Aboud, adjacent to the settlement of Beit Aryeh.

Despite the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a commitment past year that no government ministers would visit the Temple Mount, Ariel was escorted into the compound by Israeli forces.

In the last two months, Israel has also been enforcing intermittent bans on Muslims under the age of 50 from entering the complex during Jewish visiting hours in the morning, according to the director of Al-Aqsa mosque, Omar Kiswani.

Israeli police officers detain a Palestinian youth during clashes in the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, Friday, September 18, 2015.

Tensions in the holy city are high after clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian worshippers around the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for three consecutive days earlier this week, beginning on Sunday at the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. “What I can tell you is that the cold peace with Israel will get colder”, he said.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem city in 1967.

“During clashes with Border Police and residents of Jabel Mukaber, protesters blocked several streets with burning tires, and garbage dumpsters”, police said in a statement.

Jews are allowed to visit the site, which they call the Temple Mount, but can not pray there to avoid raising further tensions.

In each case, DCIP’s research found “no evidence that any of the children killed in the West Bank posed a direct threat to Israeli troops or settlers”, adding that one out of the 12 cases resulted in both an investigation and indictment.

Hamas had called for a “day of rage” to coincide with weekly Friday prayers.

The state Saudi Press Agency quoted an official source describing the Israeli actions as an “aggression” which would “lead to grave consequences and contribute to feeding extremism and violence”. All along the winding “Seam Line” – separating Arab neighborhoods from the Jewish ones built on confiscated Palestinian land – there broke out riots, clashes and the hurling of stones, firecrackers and petrol bombs.

Barkat, who has been mayor since 2008, said “the punishment must be dramatically increased” so that the young people throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks know that they will “pay a heavy price”. The driver fled, after which the bus was set on fire.