11 May 2021 08:40 am
Fighting between Israeli security forces and protesters left hundreds injured in clashes prompted by a dispute about access to parts of the Old City and attempts to evict the members of a Palestinian family from their home.
Videos posted online showed police using flash grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets and Palestinians throwing stones outside the al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Jews at the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
The Red Crescent organization reported 305 injuries, seven of them life-threatening. About 290 were sent to hospital after the fighting at the mosque.
Police said 21 officers had been injured.
The number of those injured could rise and there were reports that some people who had been hurt were still at the site. Some alleged that Israel was preventing medics from reaching the site.
Members of both the Muslim and Jewish faiths attach strong religious significance to the mosque and its surrounding areas, making the potential for clashes there high.
The clashes have grown more intense in recent days. On Friday, about 300 Palestinians and 20 police officers sustained injuries.
There was also an incident on the edge of the Old City in the morning when an Israeli motorist rammed his car into a Palestinian man after his vehicle was pelted with stones by a group of Palestinians.
The situation has prompted multiple calls from around the world for both sides to find some way to restore calm.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to exercise “maximum restraint,” according to
a spokesperson.
-Jerusalem (dpa),
10 May, 2021