Occupied Jerusalem: Thousands of Jews prayed at the Western Wall in Occipied Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday, after a series of clashes at the adjacent flashpoint Al Aqsa Mosque compound.
Israeli police blocked access for non-Muslims to the highly sensitive holy site, which is directly above the Western Wall plaza, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP. At least 20 Palestinians were wounded and a dozen arrested after fierce clashes erupted on Wednesday between Israel’s occupation forces and Palestinian civilian guards and volunteers on Al Aqsa Holy Compound. At least a 1,000-strong force and sniper squad stormed the compound via Al Magahribah and Al Silsilah gates before locking the compound’s other gates, and attacked the students who spent their night guarding the third holy site of Muslims,” said Shaikh Omar Al Kiswani, Director General of Al Aqsa compound.
Hundreds of Palestinian volunteers, guards of the compound and students from Sharia schools have spent the past four nights protecting the site from the possible attack by colonists who called for a ‘group pilgrimage’ to Al Haram Al Qudsi Al Sharif [Israelis call Temple Mount] to mark the Jewish Passover festival, which is marked till April 21. Shaikh Al Kiswani said that Israel deployed the forces at all gates of the compound, where none of the Palestinian Muslims was permitted entry, which aggravated the already tense situation and tens of buses carrying Palestinians from the 1948 areas arrived at the site to protect the holy compound.