-Arrest hundreds of innocent Palestinians after blatant attack
-Fire stun grenades, arrest worshippers from inside the mosque, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians
-Pakistan strongly condemns attack on Palestinian worshippers
DM Monitoring
Jerusalem: The Arab League is set to hold an emergency meeting to discuss an Israeli police raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem that left at least 12 Palestinians injured, as Israeli Prime Miniser Benjamin Netanyahu said he was working to “maintain the status quo” at the holy site.
The Arab League meeting was called by Jordan, Egypt and Palestinian officials, with tensions remaining high in Jerusalem since Israeli police attacked worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound overnight on Wednesday, during the holy month of Ramadan.
The raids continued into the morning when Israeli forces were once again seen assaulting and pushing Palestinians out of the compound and preventing them from praying – before Israelis were allowed in under police protection.
The League had earlier condemned the attack, with Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit saying in a statement: “The extremist approaches that control the policy of the Israeli government will lead to widespread confrontations with the Palestinians if they are not put to an end.”
At least 400 Palestinians were arrested on Wednesday and remain in Israeli custody, according to Palestinian officials. They are being held at a police station in Atarot in occupied East Jerusalem. Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces used excessive force including stun grenades and tear gas, causing suffocation injuries to the worshippers, and beatings with batons and rifles. “We were conducting itikaf [Muslim religious worship] at Al-Aqsa because it’s Ramadan,” said Bakr Owais, a 24-year-old student who was detained.
“The army broke the upper windows of the mosque and began throwing stun grenades at us. They made us lay on the ground and they hand cuffed us one by one and took us all out. They kept swearing at us during this time. It was very barbaric.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that three of the injured people were transferred to hospital. It also said in a statement that Israeli forces prevented its medics from reaching Al-Aqsa.
The raids continued until Wednesday morning when Israeli forces were once again seen assaulting and pushing Palestinians out of the mosque compound and preventing them from praying, before Israelis were allowed in under police protection.
“I was sitting on a chair reciting [the Quran],” an elderly woman told the Reuters news agency while sitting outside the mosque, struggling to catch her breath. “They hurled stun grenades, one of them hit my chest,” she said as she began to cry.
Israeli police said in a statement that they were forced to enter the compound after “masked agitators” locked themselves inside the mosque with fireworks, sticks and stones.
“When the police entered, stones were thrown at them and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators,” the statement said, adding that a police officer was wounded in the leg.
In a statement issued later on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that he was trying to calm the situation at Al-Aqsa.
“Israel is committed to maintaining freedom of worship, freedom of access to all religions and the status quo and will not allow violent extremists to change that,” Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday strongly condemned an attack on Palestinian worshippers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli forces, terming it ‘the height of barbarity’.
Regrettably, Israel had no regard for any norms of humanity including the sanctity of religious places, the president said on his Twitter handle.
“We see the height of barbarity to attack worshippers in a vicious manner during the holy month of Ramzan. The international community must condemn this brutal and inhumane act against peaceful worshippers,” the president posted in a related tweet.
