Great tensions in Jerusalem. Israeli police announced Wednesday night that they had intervened inside the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem to dislodge “agitators” who had introduced “fireworks, sticks and stones”. Denouncing “an unprecedented crime”, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, called on Palestinians in the West Bank “to go en masse to the Al-Aqsa mosque to defend it”.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is located on the Esplanade of the Mosques, the third holiest site of Islam in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the Holy City occupied and annexed by Israel. The Esplanade is built on what the Jews call the Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism.
Explosions inside the place of worship
This violence occurs a little before the middle of Ramadan and as the Jews prepare to celebrate Easter from Wednesday evening. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has experienced a marked resurgence of violence since the beginning of the year. Israeli police have released video footage of more than 50 seconds showing explosions of what appear to be fireworks inside the place of worship, including figures throwing rocks.
“These ringleaders barricaded themselves there several hours later. [les dernières prières du soir] in order to undermine public order and desecrate the mosque,” while chanting “slogans inciting hatred and violence,” the Israeli police statement said. After the announcement of the clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque, several rockets were fired from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory, according to AFP journalists and witnesses.
In Gaza, dozens of demonstrators took to the streets in several places overnight, burning tires. “We swear to defend and protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” they proclaimed.