Israeli police forces have launched a new incursion into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, wounding dozens of Palestinians, according to medical sources.
A medic, who was inside the compound reported 30 people injured by the use of pepper spray and rubber bullets to their arms and legs.
Nidal Hijazi, from the Sama al-Quds medical services association in Old City, said that one person was transferred to hospital with a rubber bullet to his back.
Palestinian media reported on Thursday that Israeli forces targeted worshippers with tear gas and rubber bullets during dawn prayers and that Palestinian youth responded with stones and petrol bombs.
Reporting from Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker said Israeli forces fired stun grenades, rubber bullets and pepper spray at Palestinian worshippers on the site.
She added that Palestinian youth shot fireworks from Al-Qibly Mosque at far-right Israeli settler groups that passed through the compound to mark Passover.
“What’s significant is that this will be the last time. The Israeli government has banned these groups from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound until the end of Ramadan.
“These visits, by ultra-right-wing Israeli nationalists, have changed in nature [over the years]. They are calling for the right to pray on the compound,” said Dekker, explaining that this challenges the status quo agreed upon between Israel and Jordan in 1967 and which bans non-Muslims from praying on the site.
Al- Jazeera
