Violence spreads on day Israel marks its control of Jerusalem

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Violence spreads on day Israel marks its control of Jerusalem

Mon, 05/10/2021 - 23:52
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Palestinians clashed with Israeli police on a volatile hilltop shrine in Jerusalem early Monday, as weeks of violence threatened to spiral on the day Israel celebrates its control over the contested holy city.

Palestinians hurled rocks, other heavy objects and firecrackers from the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is Islam’s third-holiest site and the location of Judaism’s biblical temple. Israeli police stormed the mount, firing stun grenades and rubber bullets. The Associated Press, citing Palestinian medics, reported that 50 Palestinians were hospitalized.

Spillover violence persisted from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, where militants launched rockets and flaming balloons into southern Israel, setting fires but causing no injuries.

The potential for escalation is high because on Monday Israel celebrates Jerusalem Day, marking its capture of the city’s eastern sector from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. The day is traditionally a fraught one as a parade by Jewish nationalists cuts through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, in a display of Israeli hegemony that Palestinians deplore.

Israeli officials have allowed the parade to go ahead, but in an effort to deescalate tensions, police have barred Jewish visitors from the hilltop compound where Monday’s violence broke out. The site — the most contested piece of land in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — is known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram-as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

Israel’s Army Radio reported that several dozen Jews tried to force their way onto the mount.

The holy city has been seething with its worst unrest in years since the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan more than three weeks ago. Israeli restrictions on gathering at a traditional Ramadan meeting place outside the Old City touched off the tensions, but after they were lifted, protests were rekindled by the threatened evictions of Palestinians from longtime homes in the eastern sector of the city.

Over the weekend, Palestinian medics said dozens of Palestinians were wounded in confrontations with security forces at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and in other parts of the city.

On Sunday, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke by phone with his Israeli counterpart to express “serious concerns” about the “violent confrontations.” He also reiterated U.S. concerns about the potential evictions.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement voicing similar sentiments, and the Arab League has scheduled a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation.