Tension returns to Al-Aqsa Squares..Israel arrests 9 in Jerusalem

Tension returned to the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Sunday, after a day of calm following the events of the second Friday of Ramadan, in which dozens of worshipers were injured and hundreds were arrested following confrontations with Israeli security forces.

And the Palestinian Red Crescent said, on Sunday, that its crews are dealing with 10 injuries in the events taking place in Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings in the city of Jerusalem, with renewed confrontations between worshipers and the Israeli security forces.

The Red Crescent added in a statement: “The injuries were at Bab Al-Asbat area (one of the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque). Eight injuries were from beatings and two were injured by rubber bullets. They were taken to the hospital.”

Video footage from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque showed that a number of young men were beaten with batons and at least one person was arrested.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ofir Gendelman said on Twitter that those he described as “Palestinian rioters collected stones in the Temple Mount Square in an attempt to riot” on Sunday morning, noting that “the police are working to disperse them.”

Jews enter the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of what is known as the visit program through the Mughrabi Gate, and they are not allowed to perform religious rituals or enter the covered chapels in Al-Aqsa Mosque, such as the Dome of the Rock and the Qibli prayer hall.

The Israeli police said that they arrested 9 Palestinians in Jerusalem, on Sunday.

And she added in a tweet on “Twitter”: “The arrest of 9 suspects for throwing stones, disturbing public order and violent riots in the area of ​​the Temple Mount and the Old City.”

Palestinians said that Israeli police temporarily prevented them from entering the compound after dawn prayers, to allow a previously scheduled visit of Jews who toured the site on foot amid the guard.

Such visitors are prohibited from praying or approaching Al-Aqsa Mosque, while the Palestinians consider these visits a provocation.

“We saw two groups of them and started chanting and the Israeli forces tried to arrest me,” said Abu Bakr Shemy, from Acre, a town where Jews and Arabs of Israel live.

Police said they had taken measures to prevent disruption to the visit by “hundreds” of protesters, some of them masked, who were seen piling stones at the compound.

The Palestinian presidency accused Israel of trying to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque “in time and space” between Muslims and Jews.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “We demand our Palestinian people to travel to Al-Aqsa, to defend it, and to confront this dangerous Israeli escalation.”

And he added in a statement: “We hold the Israeli government responsible for this escalation, and we call on the American administration to break its silence and stop this aggression that will ignite the entire region. Our Palestinian people will not allow this conspiracy to pass at all costs and whatever the sacrifices.”

In a statement, the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates warned that “Israel’s continued steps aimed at changing the historical and legal situation in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif, and imposing temporal and spatial division in it represents a dangerous escalation and a condemnable and rejected violation of international law and Israel’s responsibilities.”

Palestinian officials say that the temporal division means that there will be specific times for Jews in Al-Aqsa Mosque without the presence of Muslims at the same time, while the spatial division means allocating specific places for Jews and others for Muslims.

Under an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, Jordan assumes responsibility for the Islamic and Christian holy sites in the city of Jerusalem.

These events come after a day of calm in the wake of the confrontations that took place in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the second Friday of Ramadan, which led to the injury of dozens with rubber bullets and the arrest of hundreds, most of whom were later released.

Part of the reasons for the escalation of tension this year is due to the coincidence of the month of Ramadan with the celebration of Passover among the Jews.