DAR AL HARB - ISRAEL: TEMPLE MOUNT UPROAR

Israeli police storm holy Muslim site
By Harvey Morris in Jerusalem

Israeli riot police stormed the Haram al-Sharif, Islam’s third holiest site, at the close of Friday prayers as demonstrations erupted against Israeli archaeological work at the site.

Jewish worshippers scattered from the Western Wall below the mosque complex as the sound of stun grenades and the occasional live round echoed from the adjacent Muslim compound.

The controversy, which has gripped the Muslim world in recent days, involves Israeli construction work of a new bridge to link the mosque complex and the Jewish Western Wall plaza below. Palestinian Muslims fear associated archaeological works are part of an Israeli effort to encroach on the Muslim sanctuary.

Witnesses inside the Muslim compound said there were a number of wounded as worshippers attempted to protect the entrance to the Aqsa mosque in a hail of stun grenades and tear-gas fire. Israeli security forces were seen carrying on stretchers what appeared to be their own casualties through the narrow Magrabi gate just above the Western Wall.

Unrest rapidly spread to the West Bank towns of Hebron and Bethlehem and to a crossing point near Ramallah. Eyewitnesses in Bethlehem said Israeli forces fired on stone throwers near Rachel’s Tomb, a Jewish shrine in Bethlehem.

It was the most serious incident at the site, which Jews revere as the location of their destroyed Second Temple, since Ariel Sharon, former Israeli prime minister, entered the compound in September 2000 and sparked the Palestinian uprising.

Palestinians had warned that Israeli attempts to move into the compound – upon which they alleged Jewish extremists planned to erect their third temple – would spark a further Intifada against Israeli occupation.

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