Clashes, prayers in Jerusalem on holy evening of Laylat al-Qadr

Clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police outdoors the Old City of Jerusalem on Saturday as tens of hundreds of Muslim worshippers prayed on the close by Al-Aqsa Mosque on Islam’s holy evening of Laylat al-Qadr.Palestinian youth threw stones, lit fires and tore down police barricades within the streets resulting in the walled Old City gates as officers on horseback and in riot gear used stun grenades and water cannons to repel them.At least 80 individuals had been injured, together with minors and a one-year-old, and 14 had been taken to hospital, the Palestine Red Crescent stated. Israeli police stated not less than one officer was harm.”They do not want us to pray. There is a fight every day, every day there are clashes. Every day there are troubles,” stated Mahmoud al-Marbua, 27, talking close to the Old City’s Damascus Gate. Pointing to police chasing youths and firing thunder-flashes at them, he added: “Look how they are firing at us. How can we live?”Tensions have mounted within the metropolis all through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, amid rising anger over the potential eviction of Palestinians from Jerusalem houses on land claimed by Jewish settlers.In the Palestinian Gaza Strip, a whole lot of protesters gathered alongside the border with Israel. The Israeli army stated the crowds threw burning tyres and firecrackers towards the troops.Gaza militants fired not less than one rocket into Israel which landed in an open space, the army stated.”We salute the ppl. of Al-Aqsa, who oppose the arrogance of the Zionists & we call on our ppl. in Palestine to support their brothers by all means,” Moussa Abu Marzouk, a frontrunner of the armed Islamist group Hamas that guidelines Gaza, stated on Twitter.Israel stated it was beefing up safety forces on Saturday in anticipation of additional confrontations in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Gaza after fierce clashes erupted the earlier evening at Al-Aqsa Mosque.A Palestinian official stated Egypt was mediating between the edges to stop additional escalation and Saturday’s violence appeared much less pronounced than Friday’s occasions.On Friday, police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades in the direction of rock-hurling Palestinian youths on the mosque on the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount plaza holy to each Muslims and Jews.At least 205 Palestinians and 18 Israeli officers had been injured in Friday’s confrontations, which drew worldwide condemnations and requires calm.Clashes have erupted nightly in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah – a neighbourhood the place quite a few Palestinian households face eviction in a long-running authorized case. Police stated dozens of protesters threw stones at officers there on Saturday.Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai stated additional officers had been being deployed in Jerusalem on Saturday to “enable freedom of worship and maintain order and security.””At the same time, we will not allow violent riots, lawbreaking or the harming of police officers. We ask everyone to calm the spirits and violence, particularly on such an important day for the Muslim religion,” Shabtai stated in an announcement.The Israeli army stated it was boosting troops within the West Bank and close to the Gaza Strip, the place Palestinians have despatched incendiary balloons over the border, igniting brushfires in Israeli territory. A army spokesman stated additional forces there would largely be firefighting ones.QUARTET APPEALThe Middle East quartet of mediators – the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations expressed concern over the violence and potential Jerusalem evictions.”We call upon Israeli authorities to exercise restraint and to avoid measures that would further escalate the situation during this period of Muslim Holy Days,” the Quartet stated in an announcement.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in an announcement that regulation and order could be maintained in Jerusalem as would the precise to worship.Television footage confirmed buses of Muslim worshippers heading from Israeli Arab cities to Al-Aqsa being stopped by police on the primary freeway to Jerusalem.Word of the roadblock unfold on social media, drawing a whole lot of younger males from close by Arab villages and from Jerusalem.Dozens drove their vehicles the flawed approach down the now-empty Jerusalem-bound lanes, choosing up fellow Muslims who had deserted their very own autos to start out the uphill trek on foot. Some chanted in Arabic: “With our souls and our blood, we will redeem you, Al-Aqsa!”Police stated it was stopping solely these planning to participate in riots earlier than the buses had been allowed to proceed. Scuffles broke out and photographs confirmed officers firing stun grenades.Tension was anticipated to stay excessive over the subsequent few days. Israel’s Supreme Court will maintain a listening to on the Sheikh Jarrah evictions on Monday, the identical day that Israel marks Jerusalem Day – its annual celebration of its seize of East Jerusalem in the course of the 1967 Middle East battle.Palestinians need East Jerusalem because the capital of a future state. Israel claims the complete metropolis as its everlasting, indivisible capital. Its annexation of the japanese part was not recognised internationally.