Aharonovitch: Hamas behind Temple Mount riots
by Dan Slobodkin
“Hamas and other elements are heating up the area,” said Interior Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch, who arrived at the scene of the rioting on the Temple Mount Friday when Muslim youths began hurling stones down toward the Western Wall Plaza and at police forces mobilized to restore order.
Seventeen officers were injured and six required hospitalization.
“Ever since the government’s decision to preserve the holy sites, we’ve expected these riots,” added Aharonovitch, according to a Channel 2 News report. “We have also identified, in addition to the Hamas, other extremist elements that, in collaboration with it, simply fire up the area. Firm measures must be taken against these elements. We will not allow them to continue creating unrest and will act against them resolutely.”
Friday was the second time within a week that police were deployed in large numbers on the Temple Mount to control rioting among Muslim worshipers reacting to the government’s decision to include the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron on Israel’s list of Heritage Sites.
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