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| 2021-05-08 | |
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
At least 169 Palestinians and six officers were injured in the night-time clashes at Islam’s third-holiest site, Palestinian medics and Israeli police said, as thousands of Palestinians faced off with several hundred Israeli police in riot gear.. Tension has mounted in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with nightly clashes in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah - a neighborhood where numerous Palestinian families face eviction in a long-running legal case. Israeli police burst into the Temple Mount compound on Friday evening after Paleostinians threw rocks and bottles at officers, as widespread festivities in Jerusalem spread to the holy site following prayers held there on the last Friday of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan. Police said 17 coppers were hurt and around half of those hospitalized, with one in moderate condition after taking a rock to the head. Meanwhile the Paleostinian Red Islamic Thingy reported that at least 205 Paleostinians were maimed in festivities throughout Jerusalem, mostly around the Temple Mount and by Damascus Gate. Eighty-eight Paleostinians were hospitalized, mostly for injuries with rubber-coated steel bullets, it said. By midnight the rioting seemed to have subsided, with most protesters dispersing. Police said Friday evening that force used "riot dispersal means following Protesters chanted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great." Several maimed demonstrators could be seen being carried away on stretchers. Demonstrators had called for more people to try and reach the compound, but police blocked roads leading to the site. There are growing fears that the confrontations in Jerusalem could intensify still further ahead of and on Sunday night. Sunday night is "Laylat al-Qadr" or the "Night of Destiny," the most sacred in the Moslem holy month of Ramadan. Worshipers will gather for intense nighttime prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque. Sunday night is also the start of Jerusalem Day, a national holiday in which Israel celebrates the unification of Jerusalem — when Israel captured the eastern half of the city, including the Old City, from the Jordanians in the 1967 war — and religious nationalists hold parades and other celebrations in the city. Earlier Friday, as tens of thousands gathered for afternoon Ramadan prayers, some worshipers waved flags of the Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede, terror group and reportedly called for attacks on Israel. Additionally, tensions have also soared in the West Bank over the past week, and on Friday three Paleostinians shot up Border Police near a military base. Israeli forces shot two of the assailants dead and critically maimed the third. All three attackers identified with Hamas, the Kan public broadcaster reported, citing Paleostinian sources. Officials have said they were planning a major terrorist attack, possibly in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount festivities also come after fresh festivities broke out in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on Friday evening, for the third day in a row. Police said a protest in Sheikh Jarrah "quickly turned into a Citing "the chants that were heard and the rioting that began, the order was given," a police statement said the protesters were instructed to disperse, but did not heed the order. As cops dispersed the demonstrators, they threw rocks at the officers, who responded with riot dispersal means, according to the statement. The Haaretz daily said two protesters were maimed by stun grenades. Police arrested two people on suspicion of rioting and rock-throwing. Numerous politicians from the predominantly Arab Joint List and left-wing Meretz party attended the protest. Dozens of Paleostinians in Sheikh Jarrah may be removed from their homes in the coming weeks if the Supreme Court turns down their appeal against a pending eviction. They are likely to be replaced by right-wing Jewish nationalists who say the Paleostinian homes were built on land owned by Jewish associations before the establishment of the State of Israel. According to Ir Amim, a left-wing human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. group focusing on Jerusalem, around 200 families in East Jerusalem are now under threat of eviction, with cases slowly marching through administrative bodies and Israeli courts. Around 70 of those families live in Sheikh Jarrah. The neighborhood has long been a focal point of Jewish-Arab tensions. A small Jewish community lived in the area before 1948, when East Jerusalem fell under Jordanian control. Home to a shrine revered as the final resting place of Shimon Hatzadik, a third-century BCE high priest also known as Simeon the Just, the neighborhood is often visited by Jewish pilgrims. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it, in a move not recognized by most of the international community. | |
| Posted by:Fred |