April 5, 2023, 7:47 AM
April 5, 2023, 7:47 AM
Israeli police announced the arrest of more than 350 people during the violent Clashes overnight at Al Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem/Temple Mount, as the Hamas movement called on Palestinians to flock to defend this iconic Muslim place of worship.
With Daniel Blumenthal, RFI correspondent in Tel Aviv
Efforts to achieve calm continue after a dramatic night that included severe clashes between Israeli security forces and the Palestinian rioters on the Temple Mountwith hundreds of arrests, rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and condemnation from the Arab world.
Also this year the celebrations of Pesaj, Easter and Ramadan coincide.
Israeli police sources said the entrance to the Al Aqsa Mosque was unavoidablee, since hundreds of Palestinians had entrenched themselves there with fireworks and stones that they were preparing to throw over the wall on the thousands of religious Jews who visit the Wailing Wall on the eve of Pesaj.
Meanwhile, the condemnations against Israel are multiplying. The Arab League says that “The extremists in the Israeli government are doing everything they can to have a confrontation.”
“Flocking to the Al Aqsa Mosque to defend it”
He Palestinian Islamist movement Hamasin power in the Gaza Strip, denounced “an unprecedented crime” and called on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank “to flock to the Al Aqsa Mosque to defend it.”
Jordan, which administers the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalemcondemned the “assault” on the mosque and called on Israeli forces to withdraw immediately, while Saudi Arabia said it “categorically rejects” actions that violate “international principles and norms of respect for the sacred.”
Israel assures that there are no changes to the current status quo on the Temple Mount or the Esplanade of the Mosques.
Israeli Interior Security Minister Itamar ben Gvir accused those who were evicted from the mosque of wanting to “injure and kill policemen and injure Israeli citizens”, while congratulating the police for their “swift and determined action”. .
However, Jewish extremists who dream of destroying the mosques and rebuilding the great temple of King Solomon on the mount, announced that they would carry out the sacrifice of a lamb on the site, an ancient rite that today is prohibited, but without was undoubtedly one of the catalysts for the current escalation of violence.
The mosque is located on the Esplanade of the Mosquesthe third holiest site in Islam, in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the Holy City occupied and annexed by Israel.
The Esplanade is built on what Jews call the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
