Palestinians hurl stones at Western Wall Plaza
Eighteen policemen suffered light wounds trying to restore order after Arab youths emerging from Friday prayers started hurling rocks down onto those worshiping at the Western Wall.
Police used stun grenades, sponge bullets and pepper gas to quell the violence. Palestinians reported some 60 worshipers injured from gas inhalation in the clashes eventually withdrew in coordination with the Wakf Islamic trust to allow older worshipers to leave the Mount.
An Arab woman had been wounded in the head by a rubber bullet and hospitalized in serious condition, according to a Jerusalem Post report.
Najeh Btirat, a Wakf official, said the clash followed a mosque sermon “on the Islamic sites that are being targeted by Israel and the need to preserve them,” he said, referring the Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron. About 300 young men threw stones at police after prayers, said Btirat.
The rock-throwing then spilled over into the Muslim Quarter. Police deployed stun grenades, restoring calm.
Following the clash the UN Security Council “urged all sides to show restraint and avoid provocative acts.”
Abbas said Israeli security forces, which he termed the “occupation army,” were “provoking” members of other faiths in a way that could “set off a religious war in the region.”
He warned that “Israeli escapades” in east Jerusalem would have repercussions not just in the city and the Middle East, but throughout the Muslim world.
On Saturday, the Organization of the Islamic Conference charged Israel Police with sacrilege for having surrounded the Temple Mount’s Al-Aqsa Mosque to stop the Arab stoning attacks.
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