JERUSALEM – Hundreds of Palestinians were injured Monday after Israeli police entered the grounds of the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, after a week of mounting tension in the city. Police fired rubber-tipped bullets and stunned grenades at stone-throwing Palestinians who had stored stones on the site in anticipation of a stalemate with right-wing Jewish groups.
According to a representative of the Palestinian Red Crescent, more than 330 people were injured and at least 250 people were hospitalized that afternoon. One person was shot in the head and was in critical condition, the medical aid group said. At least two other people were in a serious or critical condition. According to the police, at least 21 police officers were injured.
Tensions were expected to increase as the day progressed. Thousands of far-right Israelis were supposed to march provocatively through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City on Monday afternoon to mark the conquest of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, an anniversary in Israel known as Jerusalem Day. Israel then annexed that part of the city, a move that most of the world did not recognize. Palestinians claim that East Jerusalem is the capital of a future state.
Videos posted on Twitter showed chaos both outside and inside the mosque, where some worshipers were sheltered from explosions while others were throwing stones and setting off fireworks. In another clip, police officers were seen beating a man who was being held in part of the mosque grounds. In the early afternoon the police withdrew from the construction site.
Another video released by the police showed young men throwing stones from the edge of the mosque onto the land below. A separate clip, captured by a surveillance camera, appeared to show a Jewish man turning into a passerby after stones hit his car and Palestinians opened the car doors. Hadassah Medical Center reported that a 7-month-old girl was also treated after her head was slightly injured by a stone.
Witnesses at the mosque reacted in shock to the tactics used by the Israeli police in one of the most sacred places in the world. “Why did you attack the Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan?” asked Khaled Zabarqa, 48, a lawyer who said he prayed on the mosque grounds before escaping after the first shots.
“The Aqsa Mosque is a sacred place for Muslims,” added Zabarqa. “Israel starts a religious war.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the police for their “strong stance”.
“Now there is a battle going on for the heart of Jerusalem,” he said. “It’s not a new fight. It is the struggle between intolerance and tolerance, between lawless violence and law and order, ”he added, viewing the confrontations as the continuation of a sectarian struggle for the city for hundreds of years.
Israeli security officials met for consultations in the hours leading up to the start of the Jerusalem Day march and recommended that measures be taken to minimize friction, including by rerouting the march. However, the police ultimately decided to allow it to be carried out on their traditional route.
Jerusalem day is always full. But the atmosphere was particularly feverish on Monday as the confrontations followed weeks of escalating tensions in the city, with Palestinians restricted access to the old city during the holy month of Ramadan, a far-right march through the city center in April, and on the streets Attacks by Jews and Arabs have all contributed to the volatile atmosphere.
Pressure has risen in recent days as protests increased against the threat of evictions of several Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. For the Palestinians and their supporters, the case has become a substitute for the broader campaign to evict Palestinians from parts of East Jerusalem and their previous evictions in the Occupied Territories and within Israel.
Tensions escalated again on Friday evening when police fired rubber-tipped bullets and stunned grenades and Palestinians threw stones at the Aqsa site after prayers. The video showed some grenades that landed in the mosque.
Militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at Israel overnight on Sunday after sending incendiary balloons into Israeli farmlands in recent days. Israel has returned fire, denied fishermen access to the sea and blocked a key crossroads between Gaza and Israel – but avoided a major escalation.
Tensions heightened when a Palestinian killed an Israeli in a drive-by shooting in the occupied West Bank last week, sparking a manhunt by the Israeli army in the West Bank and raids on Palestinian homes. Israeli soldiers later shot dead a Palestinian teenager in another incident.
A court ruling on the evictions of families in East Jerusalem planned for Monday was postponed on Sunday in order to partially defuse these growing tensions. Israeli police made the last minute decision on Monday morning to prevent Jews from entering the Aqsa grounds, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
But clashes nonetheless occurred that were expected to escalate throughout the day.
The violence takes place against a background of political instability in both Israel and the Occupied Territories. The Palestinian Authority recently canceled the first Palestinian elections in 15 years.
And after a fourth Israeli election in just two years, the Israeli opposition parties are embroiled in negotiations to form a coalition government to replace Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s prime minister. Mr. Netanyahu is a janitor on trial on corruption charges.
Myra Noveck reported from Jerusalem and Iyad Abuheweila from Gaza City.
