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Palestinian killed as Israel restricts access to Jerusalem's Old City Palestinians killed as Israel restricts access to Jerusalem's Old City
(about 1 hour later)
A Palestinian has died after being shot in the head in an East Jerusalem neighbourhood near the Old City, the Palestinian health ministry said, as clashes broke out in the area. Two Palestinians have been killed in Jerusalem amid escalating protests in the city and across Palestinian territories against new Israeli security measures at a highly sensitive holy site.
Tensions have mounted over new security measures at a highly sensitive holy site and the police restricting access for Muslim prayers. The two died in separate incidents in Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem after tense Friday prayers during which thousands of Palestinians prayed in the streets around the Old City after refusing to enter the compound known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, which houses the al-Aqsa mosque.
The ministry however did not specify who was behind the shooting in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood. The compound is considered the third holiest site in Islam and the most sacred for Jews, who call it Temple Mount.
The unrest came after Israeli ministers decided not to order the removal of metal detectors erected at entrances to the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, after an attack nearby a week ago that killed two police officers. Metal detectors were installed by Israeli police after a deadly shootout inside the compound last Friday in which three Israeli-Arab gunmen killed two Israeli policeman at the Lion’s Gate entrance before fleeing back inside and being killed by police.
In anticipation of protests on Friday, Israeli police barred men under 50 from entering the Old City for prayers, while all women were allowed in. Palestinians – and the Jordanian administered religious institution, the waqf, which takes care of the site – say the new security controls on worshippers represent a breach of the status quo at the flashpoint location.
Police said later that discretion could be applied in the use of the metal detectors instead of forcing everyone to go through them. Friday’s events came at the end of a tense week in Jerusalem. The Israeli decision to leave the metal detectors in place came after calls on Thursday for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to back down and remove the devices so as not to inflame the situation.
But Palestinian and religious leaders were still calling on worshippers not to enter until the devices were removed. Reporting the three deaths on Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Mohammed Abu Ranam and 17-year-old Mohammad Sharaf had been killed in the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods of At-Tur and Ras al-Amud respectively.
Hundreds held midday prayers near the gates of the Old City in protest. According to police, dozens of people entered the compound. The ministry later reported that 17-year-old Muhammad Mahmoud Khalaf had died in hospital in Ramallah after being shot in the chest by Israeli troops during a demonstration in Abu Dis.
Crowds gathered outside the Old City found streets around Damascus Gate – the entrance most heavily used by Palestinians – blocked. The clashes with Israeli security forces followed a call by the waqf for other mosques to remain closed and for Palestinians to converge in the area around the Old City to pray.
A group of several hundred people, including Muslim leaders, marched towards the Lions Gate entrance to the mosque compound, but police informed them that only men 50 or over would be allowed in. In an additional controversial security measure, Israel restricted entry to the mosque area and Old City on Friday to men aged 50 and over and wome. Police later fired stun grenades and teargas canisters towards protesters outside the Old City, while Palestinians threw stones and other objects at security forces in some areas.
Police later fired stun grenades and teargas canisters towards protesters outside the Old City, while Palestinians threw stones and other objects at security forces in some areas. Speaking to the Guardian outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate, Jawad Bibis, 50, said he had crossed four checkpoints to reach the street, where he had finally prayed. “The Israelis kept asking us the same questions. Where are you coming from and why don’t you pray in your own neighbourhood? It is none of their business where I pray,” he said.
“They turned back everyone who came here to pray but then I told them I was going to the doctor, but they did not let me in,” said Ulfat Hamad, 42, who was visiting from the US. His friend Daoud Anati,like many Palestinians, accused Israel of using the new metal detectors ”to impose Israeli sovereignty” over the site.
“I am going to pray here with others,” he said outside the walls. The clashes came as the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, asked the US to “intervene urgently” and compel Israel to remove metal detectors, according to his aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh.
Tensions have risen since police installed the metal detectors in a move Palestinians and other Muslims perceive as a means for Israel to assert further control over the compound containing the revered Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock. Abu Rdeneh said Abbas had discussed the growing tensions in Jerusalem in a phone call with Donald Trump’s top adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The Palestinian leader told Kushner the situation was “extremely dangerous and may go out of control”, Abu Rdeneh said.
The controversy has resonated beyond Israel and the Palestinian territories, with the US and the UN Middle East envoy expressing concern. The Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan, also discussed the issue with Abbas and called on the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, to press for their removal.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke with Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In an attempt to contain what have become nightly confrontations in Jerusalem this week, Israel had drafted in thousands of extra police as well as putting five additional army battalions on stand by in the West Bank.
Abbas urged the US administration to immediately intervene and warned the situation was “extremely dangerous and might spiral out of control”, the Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news agency reported. The city’s top Muslim cleric, Mohammed Hussein, told worshippers on Friday that he expected a “long test of wills” with Israel.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has also called on Israel to remove the detectors. He spoke by telephone with both Abbas and the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, on Thursday. The tension has not been limited to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, with large crowds turning out to protest on Friday against the security measures in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stressed the metal detectors were intended to ensure the safety of worshippers and visitors and not an attempt to disturb the fragile status quo, under which Jordan is custodian of the site and Jewish prayer is forbidden. The Haram al-Sharif-Temple Mount compound, containing the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque, has long been a source of religious friction. Since Israel captured and annexed the Old City, including the compound, in the 1967 Middle East war, it has also become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
Palestinians have been refusing to enter the compound all week in protest against the use of metal detectors. The decision to leave the metal detectors in place came as far-right members of Netanyahu’s government – which relies on religious and rightwing parties for support – had publicly urged him to keep the devices in place.
Friday prayers draw the largest number of worshippers – typically thousands – and speculation had been mounting that Netanyahu might order the removal of the detectors. “Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo at the Temple Mount and the freedom of access to the holy places,” the security cabinet said in a statement.
But after consultations with security chiefs and members of his security cabinet, he decided not to.
Police said they had increased their deployment of officers in and around the Old City, with units “mobilised in all areas and neighbourhoods”.
The new security measures were put in place after a fatal gun and knife attack near the compound on 14 July.
Three Arab Israeli assailants fled to the compound after the attack which left two policemen dead. The three were shot dead by security forces.
Israeli police said the weapons used by the attackers were smuggled into the holy site which was then used as the launchpad for the attack.
Israel initially closed the compound for two days afterwards in a highly unusual move, shutting it for last Friday’s prayers. It said the closure was necessary for security checks.
In the Gaza Strip, Islamist movement Hamas called for a day of “rage” on Friday. In the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians also prayed outside in support of the Al Aqsa protests.
The Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
. The compound is considered the third holiest site in Islam and the most sacred for Jews.