NEW HORROR IN THE HOLY CITY
Hundreds hurt in Jerusalem – as Israeli strikes ‘kill 9 children’
VIOLENCE in Jerusalem erupted again yesterday with hundreds injured in some of the worst clashes in the city for years.
And the confrontation between Jews and Palestinians threatened to widen as nine children were reported killed in Israeli airstrikes against Hamas.
The strikes against the Palestiniancontrolled Gaza Strip were in response to rocket attacks fired over the border from Gaza by militants.
Israel said it had targeted ‘a Hamas military operative’, and Hamas confirmed one of its commanders had been killed.
However, Palestinian sources also claimed that nine children were among a total of 20 dead. The clashes in Jerusalem and the rocket attacks follow months of rising tensions. Among the causes is the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from homes in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers.
The violence in Jerusalem’s Old City, which began on Friday, escalated throughout yesterday with more than 300 people hurt and at least 205 needing hospital treatment. Seven were left in a critical condition and 21 police were among those injured.
Palestinians in the Al-Aqsa mosque on Temple Mount hurled rocks and launched fireworks at police and flew Hamas flags. Officers replied with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber coated bullets.
Loud booms and angry screams echoed from the ancient stone walls, where Palestinians had built makeshift barricades and the ground was littered with debris. In a horrific incident nearby, a Jewish motorist’s car was pelted with missiles and rioters tried to drag the man and his two passengers out, it was claimed. He then drove at his attackers, injuring some, before crashing. Yesterday’s violence followed three nights of trouble in Jerusalem.
On Sunday night, at least 25 people were wounded and 23 arrested. Around 300 were injured on Friday and Saturday nights. An annual Jerusalem Day parade by Israeli nationalists, which takes place in the Old City to mark the annexation of the whole city after the 1967 war, was rerouted away from Muslim areas.
The Temple Mount is considered holy by both Muslims and Jews. It contains the Al-Aqsa Mosque – the third holiest site in Islam – and is the Jews’ holiest location, where both biblical temples stood.
Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the rocket fire from Gaza. Hamas had given Israel an ultimatum – demanding police stand down from outside the mosque and cease evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood nearby – but their deadline was ignored. Militants also fired an anti-tank missile, which struck a civilian vehicle near Sderot, an Israeli town next to Gaza.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, called for his ‘entire nation to take to the streets and clash with the occupation’.
Last night, there was speculation some Palestinian deaths could be due to Hamas rockets misfiring. At least 45 were believed to have been fired, most landing in countryside and doing no damage.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted: ‘The UK condemns the firing of rockets at locations within Israel. We need an immediate deescalation on all sides.’
‘Clash with the occupation’