OCCUPIED JERUSALEM / RAMALLAH, March 13 (NNN-DAILYSTAR) – Israeli police closed the entrances to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site after Palestinian suspects threw a firebomb at a police station, Israeli authorities said Tuesday. The rare move drew angry reactions across the Muslim world.
There were no injuries reported from the firebombing. But police quickly deployed across the hilltop compound, scuffling with Palestinians in the area, as they searched for the assailants. At least three suspects were arrested, and police were seen wrestling a woman to the ground
After the incident, Israeli police sealed off entrances to the Al-Aqsa compound. Police also restricted entrance to the Old City, home to Jerusalem’s most important religious sites, allowing only residents to pass through certain entrances to the Muslim and Christian quarters.
Other entrances to the Old City remained open.
Palestinians threw a fire bomb at an Israeli police post at a site revered by Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem
Firas Dibs, spokesperson for the Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed Islamic body that administers the site, said police had cleared nearly all worshippers from the compound. “All doors are closed and no one is allowed in,” he said.
Several dozen worshippers gathered just outside the compound for impromptu prayers as Israeli police stood watch.
Police confirmed three arrests, while Dibs said six people had been arrested and 10 others injured in scuffles with police.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the “dangerous Israeli escalation” and warned of “serious repercussions.” In a statement, he called on the international community to intervene.
The closure of the sacred compound also drew censure from Jordan, the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Abdel-Nasser Abu Basal, Jordanian Islamic Affairs and Holy Sites Minister, described the barring of Muslim worshippers from the site as “a flagrant assault on all religious values, rights and freedom,” and “an attack on all Muslims that touches the entire Islamic nation.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu lashed out at Israel over the incident, saying it was time to end the country’s “recklessness.”
“We cannot accept such reckless attacks on holy sites and the whole world needs to react against it,” the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Cavusoglu as saying.
Police later announced that the site would reopen to worshippers and visitors Wednesday morning.
The site has experienced a series of tense standoffs in recent weeks after Muslim worshippers reopened an area known as the “Gate of Mercy,” closed by Israel in 2003.
The Waqf has staged periodic prayer-protests inside since late February to call for unrestricted access to the shuttered building.
Israel closed the structure in 2003, claiming it was used by a heritage organization with ties to Hamas.
The Waqf contends that because the heritage group is now defunct, the council should regain full access to the building like any other in the holy esplanade.
Separately, Israel’s army said a Palestinian was shot dead by soldiers near a military post in the flashpoint city of Hebron when he ran at Israeli troops with a knife Tuesday.
The Palestinian higher judicial council identified the dead man as Yasser al-Sweiki, 40, and said he worked in a Palestinian court in Hebron. The council denounced the shooting as “a despicable crime.”
“Soldiers identified a terrorist armed with a knife running towards them,” an army spokesperson said.
A physical confrontation followed, “then he ran toward a nearby building while still armed with a knife,” she said. “The soldiers then fired towards him, thwarted the attack and he was killed.”
No soldiers were wounded in the incident, the spokesperson said.
Later in the day, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a Palestinian man, Mohammad Shaheen, 23, died after being shot by Israeli soldiers during clashes Tuesday in Salfit, near Ramallah.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the clashes erupted as Israeli soldiers raided the village to take footage from surveillance cameras.
A spokesperson for the army told AFP that: “Dozens of Palestinians took part in a violent riot, during which they hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers, who responded with riot dispersal means.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said a Palestinian shot in protests on the enclave’s border nearly two weeks ago succumbed to his wounds.
Mousa Mohammed Mousa, 23, was injured on March 1 in clashes along the border, ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement
He told that Mousa had been shot in the back east of Al-Bureij in central Gaza
