The Palestinian Red Crescent in Jerusalem announced that 24 Palestinians were injured by Israeli occupation rubber bullets, beatings and pepper gas in the vicinity and inside the Old City of Jerusalem.
Where 8 injuries were transferred to the hospital for treatment, while the rest of the injured were treated on the field.
The Red Crescent also announced the opening of the field hospital in the ambulance center in Al-Suwaneh neighborhood.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Israeli prime minister, accompanied dozens of Israeli settlers during the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid heavy security.
On Sunday, thousands of Israelis participate in the annual "Flags March" that was launched in the streets of Jerusalem to commemorate the occupation of the eastern part of the city, A year after a war in the Gaza Strip, it erupted after the "Quds Day" march last year.
This march, organized by the Israelis to commemorate the "unification of Jerusalem", which they consider the capital of their state, angers the Palestinians, who seek to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state.
The march was preceded by tensions and confrontations in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the first of the two qiblahs and the third of the Two Holy Mosques for Muslims. The Temple Mount, sacred to the Jews, At other points in the Old City, where Palestinians raised Palestinian flags on their homes, groups of Israelis who carried Israeli flags marched in the streets, shouting and singing, escorted by police.
Sacrilege
Hundreds of settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Sunday morning, while the Israeli police closed the Al-Rahma Chapel, and surrounded worshipers in Al-Qibli Mosque, A spokesman for the Palestinian presidency accused Israel of "playing with fire irresponsibly and recklessly" by allowing settlers to desecrate holy sites in Jerusalem.
And the Palestinian News Agency quoted Abu Nabil Abu Rudeina as saying in an interview with Voice of Palestine radio that Israel “disregards the international community, does not respect the decisions of international legitimacy, and considers itself above the law, calling on the international community, especially the American administration, to shoulder its responsibilities towards what is happening and not to deal with duplicity.”
And the Palestinian News Agency said today, Sunday, that more than 500 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, from the side of the Mughrabi Gate, under heavy guard by the Israeli police, adding that the police closed the Al-Qibli prayer hall and surrounded the worshipers and the worshipers inside it, and arrested 10 young men from Bab Al-Silsila.
The agency quoted local sources as saying that dozens of Israeli policemen preempted the settlers’ incursions into Al-Aqsa, and spread in its courtyards, and closed the Al-Qibli prayer hall with iron chains, and surrounded the worshipers inside it.
The same sources indicated that the settlers stormed the courtyards of the Haram in groups, each group included 40 individuals, and carried out what they described as "provocative tours" in its courtyards.
The agency added that the settlers performed for the first time what they call "epic prostration" in the mosque's courtyards. According to the agency, the Israeli forces arrested ten young men from the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and at the al-Silsilah Gate, and "assaulted an elderly man and took him out of the mosque." She added that a woman sustained bruises and fractures as a result of an attack on her by the Israeli forces in the courtyards of the mosque.
Meanwhile, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by dozens of Israeli settlers, stormed the Al-Buraq Wall in Al-Aqsa Mosque. Netanyahu entered the center of a heavy security guard, coinciding with the tension taking place in the march of Israeli flags.
The Palestinian News Agency quoted unnamed security sources as saying that a number of settlers closed the street, raised Israeli flags, and chanted slogans against the Palestinians, which the agency described as racist.
And the Israeli army had deployed large numbers of its soldiers in the Bab al-Amoud area in Jerusalem against the backdrop of the expected clashes due to the "flags march" there, according to Israeli media reports at dawn today, Sunday.
This comes at a time when Palestinian citizens from inside the Green Line are trying to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to Palestinian media outlets, which indicated that they were prevented by the Israeli forces.
About 3,000 Israeli soldiers were deployed ahead of the march through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City later in the day.
This annual Jerusalem parade commemorates Israel's occupation of the Old City in the 1967 Middle East war, and draws thousands of participants through its narrow, stone streets.
But for the Palestinians, the march represents a blatant provocation and a violation of one of the few places in the city that still retains a strong Arab character. Increased Jewish settlement activities encircle the city.
The march comes at a time when Tel Aviv celebrates the so-called "Quds Day", to commemorate the "unification of the city" after the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.
Hamas warned against the march, saying it would use "all possibilities" to confront it.
On Saturday, Hamas issued a statement calling on Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, along with the Arab minority in Israel, to "intifada on Sunday to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque."
The UN Middle East peace envoy, Tor Wencesland, on Friday appealed to "all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid another violent conflict that will only take more lives." "The message of the international community is clear to avoid such an escalation," he said.
But Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has so far refused to accept any changes despite calls from some of his coalition allies to rethink the process.
"The flags' march will be organized as usual according to the planned route as it has been for decades," his office said on Friday, adding that it would review the situation regularly in the coming hours.
At the start of last year's march, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, fired rockets into Israel, sparking an 11-day war that left hundreds dead.
Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern part of it as the capital of their future state.
Tensions have risen in the city for weeks. Frequent clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in April, during the month of Ramadan, with Muslims angry at the increase in the number of Jewish visitors to the mosque.
The Source
- Agencies