Israeli police announced on Wednesday night, April 5, that they had intervened inside the al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem to bring out “agitators” who had introduced “fireworks, sticks and stones”.
Denouncing “an unprecedented crime”, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, called on Palestinians in the West Bank “to go en masse to the al-Aqsa mosque to defend it”.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is located on the Esplanade of the Mosques, the third holiest site of Islam in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the Holy City occupied and annexed by Israel. The Esplanade is built on what the Jews call the Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism.
This violence occurs a little before the middle of Ramadan and as the Jews prepare to celebrate Easter from Wednesday evening. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has experienced a marked resurgence of violence since the beginning of the year.
Israeli police released video footage longer than 50 seconds showing explosions of what appear to be fireworks inside the place of worship, including figures throwing rocks.
Firing of fireworks
Another police video footage shows riot police advancing through the mosque shielding themselves from rocket fire with shields.
Footage then shows a barricaded door, batteries of fireworks on a carpet on the floor, and police evacuating at least five people with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
“Tonight, as the police worked to allow large numbers of Muslims to celebrate the month of Ramadan and arrive in the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, several young masked outlaws and agitators brought inside the [Al-Aqsa] mosque fireworks, sticks and stones,” Israel Police wrote in a statement.
“These ringleaders barricaded themselves there several hours after [the last evening prayers] in order to undermine public order and desecrate the mosque”, while chanting “slogans inciting hatred and violence” , adds the text.
“After many and long unsuccessful attempts to get them out through dialogue, the police forces were forced [to intervene] to dislodge them in order to allow the holding [of the first dawn prayers] and to prevent violent disturbances,” the police continued.
Protests in Gaza
During the intervention, “a large group of agitators” fired fireworks and threw stones inside the mosque towards the officers, police write, saying one officer was injured by a stone in the leg.
The security forces “arrested the rioters”, who “caused damage to the mosque and desecrated it”, adds the text without specifying the number of people detained.
After the announcement of the clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque, several rockets were fired from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory, according to journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP) and witnesses.
AFP journalists saw three rockets fire from afar, and witnesses said they saw more. The Israeli army reported the triggering of warning sirens in several Israeli urban areas around the Gaza Strip. Five rockets fired towards Israeli territory were “intercepted by anti-aircraft defenses” in the Sderot area of ??southern Israel, the army said, while four other rockets fell in uninhabited areas.
In Gaza, dozens of demonstrators took to the streets in several places overnight, burning tires. “We swear to defend and protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” they proclaimed.