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Palestinian Authority Calls for General Strike
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has called for a general strike to be held on Saturday to protest the killing of five Palestinians by Israeli army in the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem on Friday.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said over official Voice of Palestine radio that only official bodies, such as ministries, would be exempt from the strike.
The clashes in the Temple Mount, called al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) by Muslims, in the walled Old City in East Jerusalem, erupted early in the day when thousands of Palestinian worshipers gathered in the Muslim compound for Friday noon prayers.
The compound, housing the third holiest shrines of Islam of Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the site of the former Jewish Temple, the most sacred shrine of Judaism.
Israeli police claimed that after the prayers, the Palestinians began hurling stones at the Israelis soldiers posted near the site and the Jews who are praying at the nearby Western Wall, the only relics of the Jewish Temple, ahead of Friday afternoon's Jewish New Year.
The Israeli soldiers reportedly fired live round at the crowd, leaving five Palestinians killed and hundreds more injured.
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