Clashes on Sunday raised the number of injured since Friday to more than 170, in a tense period as Jewish Passover coincides with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. They also follow deadly violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank, beginning in late March, where 36 people were killed. Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Sunday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. Jews are allowed to visit but not pray at the site, also known as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. Israeli police said their forces had entered the compound to “remove” protesters and “restore order”. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 19 Palestinians were injured, including at least five who were hospitalized. He said some people had been injured by rubber bullets fired from rubber. Early Sunday morning, Jewish worshipers were seen leaving the area – barefoot for religious reasons – protected by heavily armed police. Outside the Old City, which is located in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, Palestinian youths threw stones at passing buses, breaking their windows, leaving seven people with minor injuries, Shaare Zedek Hospital said. The Police said he arrested 18 Palestinians and the Minister of Public Safety, Omer Bar-Lev, said Israel “will act vigorously against anyone who dares to use terrorism against Israeli citizens.” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said security forces “continue to have free hands … for any action that will provide security for the people of Israel”, and stressed that every effort should be made to allow members of all religions to worship in Jerusalem. Jordan’s King Abdullah II – who acts as the custodian of holy sites in East Jerusalem – called on Israel on Sunday to “stop all illegal and provocative measures” that are causing “further deterioration”. Senior Palestinian official Hussein Al Sheikh said “Israel’s dangerous escalation in the al-Aqsa area … is a blatant attack on our holy sites” and called on the international community to intervene. Palestinians in the al-Aqsa complex on Sunday. Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images The leader of the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, had earlier warned Israel that “al-Aqsa is ours and ours alone.” “Our people have the right to have access to it and to pray for it, and we will not bow down. [Israeli] “Repression and terror,” Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement. Meanwhile, the divided Israeli ruling coalition faced a new split on Sunday when the Arab-Israeli Raam party “suspended” its participation amid violence in Jerusalem. The government – an ideologically disparate mix of left-wing, hardline Jewish nationalist and religious parties, as well as Raham – had already lost its slim majority this month when a religious Jewish member resigned in a dispute over the distribution of dough. Since then, clashes around the al-Aqsa complex have put Raam under pressure to resign. “If the government continues to take action against the people of Jerusalem … we will resign as a bloc,” Raham said in a statement, hours after the latest casualties around al-Aqsa. The United Nations has called for calm, a year after clashes erupted in and around the mosque that escalated into an 11-day war between Israeli and Palestinian militants in Gaza. Weeks of increasing intensity have seen two recent deadly attacks by Palestinians in or near the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, as well as mass arrests by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. A total of 14 people have been killed in attacks against Israel since March 22. Twenty-two Palestinians have been killed in the same period, including attacks targeting Israelis, according to AFP. In the morning of Friday, the police collided with Palestinians in the Al-Aqsa complex, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, causing intense condemnation by Muslim countries. About 150 people were injured during the clashes. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday, said he would contact all sides to “end the Israeli escalation,” the Abbas office said in a statement. Pope Francis prayed for peace on Sunday as Christians celebrated Easter at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, where they believe Jesus died and rose again. The pope said in his Easter speech: “May the Israelis, the Palestinians and all those living in the Holy City, together with the pilgrims, experience the beauty of peace, dwell in the fraternity and enjoy free access to the holy places in reciprocal of rights. from each one.” Despite the tensions, hundreds of Christians staged a lively parade in Jerusalem, with processions led by bands with deafening drums and weeping bagpipes.
