More than 350 arrests in the Esplanade of the Mosques of Jerusalem

“The Israeli Police detained (…) more than 350 people who violently entrenched themselves on the Temple Mount,” the Israel Police announced in a statement on Wednesday, using the Jewish name for the Esplanade of Mosques, a holy place for both religions.

Israeli agents had carried out an intervention inside the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. According to information from the official Palestinian news agency, Wafamore than 400 Palestinians were detained and dozens were injured during clashes with the Police.

Subsequently, the Israeli Army and militias from the Gaza Strip they exchanged projectiles this morning, in what marks the first major violent incident since the start of Ramadan. At least nine rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza and met with retaliatory shelling by the army, so far with no injuries reported.

The Israeli Army reported that five rockets were intercepted by their anti-aircraft defense systems while another four hit “open areas”. In response, a spokesman reported, “Israel Defense Forces fighter jets bombed a weapons manufacturing site and a manufacturing and storage site belonging to Hamas,” an Islamist movement that rules de facto in the Strip and for which Israel blames from any attack from within.

Hazem Qasem, a spokesman for Hamas in Gaza, said in a statement that the Palestinian people “will not allow the (Israeli) occupation to adopt its occupation plans in the al aqsa mosque“. In addition, he described the actions of the Israeli security forces at the site as “an aggression” and “a heinous crime” that he added is part of his “religious war.”

For his part, Ismael Haniye, political leader of Hamas, described the incidents in Jerusalem as “an unprecedented crime that will have consequences”, and urged Palestinians from the West Bank and Israel “to go to the Al Aqsa mosque and protect it”.

Wafa quoted witnesses who described “excessive use of force” by Israeli agents, who fired tear gas inside the mosque and fired rubber-coated bullets. A previous statement from the Police mentioned that “masked rioters disturbed the order” with “inciting chants and violence inside the mosque”, where they would have “entrenched themselves with fireworks, sticks and stones”.

“After many and prolonged attempts to remove them through dialogue without success, the police forces were forced to enter the complex to remove them with the intention of allowing early morning prayer and avoiding violent riots,” the statement added, which detailed that one of its agents was injured in the clashes that broke out when he entered the mosque.