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Ten Injured As Riots Escalate in Old City of Jerusalem
At least 10 persons were injured while Israeli police fired rubber-coated bullets at stone-throwing Muslims on Friday at the Lion Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem.
Ambulances, fire trucks and police units remain on standby in the area and have not been ordered to move in. A police helicopter continues to hover over the area, witnesses said.
A short while ago, some Palestinians hurl stones from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound at the neighboring plaza of the Jewish holy site of Western Wall where Jewish worshipers had been removed soon.
The disturbances around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound have quieted down. Prayers can be heard as thousands of Muslims have gathered at the Mosque compound for Friday prayer services. But violence is escalating in other parts of the Old City.
Exactly one week after the bloody clashes on the Temple Mount, known to the Muslims as the Al-Haram Al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, in the Old City, Israel has deployed heavy security forces in the area, bracing for any possible outbreak of disturbances.
As a result of the closure imposed by Israel on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since early Friday morning, Muslims coming for Friday prayers are much less in number comparing with ordinary Fridays.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has ordered the closure barring Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza from entering Israel in response to the militant Palestinian Hamas movement's call for a "Day of Rage" to mark the bloody shooting at the Palestinians on the Temple Mount last Friday, which killed four Palestinians and injured more than 200.
The clashes later spread to the West Bank and Gaza, killing about 70 people, mostly Palestinians, and injuring nearly 2,000.
Israel beefed up security measures after Hamas warned in a statement on Thursday that "Friday will be a day of distinct escalation and clashes."
Marwan Barghouteh, the leader of the Fatah, the mainstream faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), said his movement has similarly called for demonstrations "to commemorate the one week after the Al-Aqsa massacre."
He said Fatah will continue demonstrating until Palestinian demands are met.
West Bank Preventive Security Service chief Jibril Rajoub has urged Israel to refrain from shooting at Palestinian demonstrators.
Barak on Thursday vowed again to make an all-out effort to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians in the coming weeks and called on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to take measures to stop the violence on the Palestinian side.
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