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Palestinians riot on Temple Mount
Etgar Lefkovits
Hundreds of Palestinians teens pelted police with stones at the
end of Friday Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount, in some of the
worst violence at the Jerusalem holy site in months, police
said.
Jerusalem police in riot gear rushed into the ancient compound
and fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse
the crowd of rioters. Fourteen Palestinians were arrested on the
scene for taking part in stone-throwing, Jerusalem police
spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
Four policemen and about a dozen Palestinians were reported
lightly injured in the clashes.
After police entered the site, hundreds of Palestinians teens
entered the El Aksa mosque, where they took cover amidst
thousands of worshipers, and continued pelting police with
stones. In keeping with longstanding regulations, police did not
enter the mosque but took up positions outside the mosque area.
From inside the compound, Palestinians could be heard chanting
``With our souls and our blood we will redeem you, Palestine''
and 'Allah Akbar' or 'God is Great', as they rained stones on
helmeted police lined up with plastic shields.
The tense hour-long standoff ended without further violence
after Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy and leaders of the
Islamic Wakf reached an agreement whereby the teens were allowed
to leave the mosque on condition that they exit the compound
peacefully and with no further violence.
Palestinian sources said this was yet another attempt by Israel
to take control of the El Aksa compound.
PA Chairman Yasser Arafat told Reuters that Friday's events
prove the El Aksa mosque is in danger and called upon Muslims
worldwide, Christians and diplomats from the "quartet" to defend
the site.
Israel maintains overall security at the site, while the Wakf,
or Islamic Trust, maintains day-to-day maintenance at the
compound.
Police had lifted restrictions on Friday Muslim prayers this
week, and opened the site to Arabs of all ages following
erroneous intelligence assessments that the risk of rioting had
diminished. Some 25,000 Arabs attended the Friday prayers at the
Jerusalem holy site, which has been a flash-point of Palestinian
violence.
After the violence ended, the Jerusalem police chief told
reporters on the scene that every time Palestinians riot on the
Temple Mount endangering Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall
down below, he orders his forces to enter the compound.
He attributed Friday's tension at the site to the 'Yassin
effect,' referring to Israel's killing of the Hamas founder,
last month. The rioting Friday came just one month after similar
Palestinian violence at the site led to the evacuation of Jewish
worshipers at the Western Wall.
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