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Bloody Clashes Erupt on Disputed Site in Jerusalem
At least Four Palestinians were shot dead and seventy others were injured after Israeli army broke into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem and began shooting Muslim prayers with live ammunitions Friday morning, Palestinian sources said.
Israeli troops had closed the Old City and blocked the entry of ambulances and hospital staff to the site, what the Palestinian called Noble Sanctuary, said a press release published by Orient House, the unofficial local headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The statement said that the Palestinian National Authority condemned the clashes and urged the Israeli government to punish those responsible.
Israeli police sources confirmed that the Israeli riot police had to burst into the compound, which under the administration of the Muslim trust Wakf, after Muslim noon prayers Friday.
The sources said that the police only fired rubber bullets and only wanted to scatter hundreds of Palestinians who were hurling stones. There were reports of injuries on the Israeli side, the sources added.
Israel police said that all the 22,000 of the Muslim worshippers who were present at the compound were now dispersed, except a few hundred hard-core are still estimated to be inside mosques at the site.
Jewish prayers at the Western Wall outside the compound, who were praying for the start of Jewish New Year beginning Friday afternoon, were also evacuated from the area.
The site hosts the most holy Muslim and Jewish places in the Old City, such as the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the relics of the Jewish First and Second Temple which Israel claimed laid beneath the earth.
The sovereignty over the site is the deal-breaker between Israel and the Palestinians at last July's Camp David summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Tension has been running high since Thursday when Ariel Sharon, leader of the hawkish Likud party, visited the site under the escort of thousands of Israeli policemen.
Clashes erupted between Palestinian demonstrators, who were shouting "God is Greatest" and "Murderer Out", and Israeli policemen immediately after the visit, in which dozens of policeman and at least ten Palestinians were injured.
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