Strikes on Gaza kill three kids, six other Palestinians
Loud booms and angry screams echoed from the ancient stone walls of the compound, where tear gas filled the air and ground was litered with rocks, stun grenade fragments and other debris
The Gaza health ministry on Monday said nine Palestinians, including three children, were killed “in a series of strikes in northern Gaza.”
A huge blaze broke out on Monday evening in Jerusalem’s Al-aqsa mosque compound, visible from various parts of the city, eyewitnesses said.
The cause of the blaze at the third holiest site in Islam could not immediately be confirmed, but it followed violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police which medics said let 331 people wounded.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said more than 300 Palestinians were injured in clashes with police who fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas in the Al Aqsa mosque compound.
An Israeli officer said that Israel had carried out an air strike in northern Gaza against Hamas and was looking into reports that children were killed.
The UN Security Council held emergency consultations on Monday on escalating violence in east Jerusalem and was considering a proposed statement calling on Israel to cease forced evictions and calling for “restraint” and respect for “the historic status quo at the holy sites.”
Ireland’s UN Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, who joined in calling for the emergency meeting, said “the Security Council should urgently speak out, and we hope that it will be able to do so today.”
Council diplomats said all 15 members expressed concern at the clashes and rising violence but the United States, Israel’s closest ally, said a statement might not be useful at this time.
Nonetheless, the US agreed to have council experts discuss the statement ater all other members said the UN’S most powerful body must react, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations were private.
The drat statement would express the Security Council’s “grave concern” at escalating tensions and violence in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and “serious concern” over the possible forced evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem, “many of whom have lived in their homes for generations.”
The European Union’s top diplomat called for calm in East Jerusalem on Monday, ater more than 300 Palestinians were hurt in clashes with Israeli police.
“The situation with regard to evictions of Palestinian families ... is a mater of serious concern. Such actions are illegal under international humanitarian law and only serve to fuel tensions on the ground,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told a news conference.
The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) said it would on Tuesday hold an emergency meeting “to discuss the escalating Israeli aggression”, including the evictions issue and “atacks against worshippers in the Mosque compound and denial of the compound access to them.”
Several thousand Jordanians protested near Israel’s embassy in Amman on Monday, calling on their government to scrap its peace deal with Israel in the face of serious Israeli-palestinian clashes around Jerusalem’s al Aqsa mosque.
Riot police blocked roads leading to the fortified embassy complex to keep back demonstrators who gathered around the Kaloti mosque in the capital near the Israeli mission.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Monday to mobilise the world to stop Israeli “terror,” in phone calls placed to Palestinian leaders during a surge in violence in Jerusalem.
Erdogan placed separate calls to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to denounce Israel’s actions and extend support.
The Turkish leader pledged “He will do everything in his power to mobilise the world, starting with the Islamic world, to stop Israel’s terror and occupation,” his office said.
Erdogan, who has long cast himself as the champion of the Palestinian cause, had on Saturday branded Israel a “cruel terrorist state”.
Israeli police have restricted access to Al-aqsa to Palestinians aged over 40, checking identification of anyone who wanted to access the plaza.
“We do not know what to do,” Palestinian retiree Fathi Awwad said in the Old City. “We are really sad about the situation inside, what is this? More than 200 injured inside! It’s a shame.”
The violence since Friday has been Jerusalem’s worst since 2017, fuelled by a long-running bid by Jewish setlers to forcibly evict several Palestinian families from their nearby east Jerusalem Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.
Over 300 Palestinians injured in clashes with Israeli forces; EU calls for calm, says Sheikh Jarrah evictions illegal; OIC set to hold emergency meeting today; Erdogan vows to mobilise world to stop Israeli ‘terror’.
Israel’s army launched air strikes on Gaza Monday amid spiralling violence sparked by unrest at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound.
Adding to the sense of chaos, a huge fire engulfed trees in the compound that houses the mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.
At least nine people were killed in Gaza — among them a senior Hamas commander — local authorities said
The Gaza health ministry said nine Palestinians, including three children, were killed “in a series of strikes in northern Gaza.”
Tensions in Jerusalem have flared since Israeli riot police clashed with Palestinian worshippers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in the city’s worst disturbances since 2017.
Nightly unrest since then at the Al-aqsa compound has let hundreds of Palestinians wounded, drawn calls for de-escalation from the international community and sharp rebukes from across the Muslim world.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, on Monday warned Israel to withdraw all its forces from the mosque compound and the east Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah, where looming evictions of Palestinian families have fuelled angry protests.
Loud booms and angry screams echoed from the ancient stone walls of the compound, revered by both Jews and Muslims, where tear gas filled the air and the ground was litered with rocks, stun grenade fragments and other debris.
The violence was the latest in days of the worst such disturbances in Jerusalem since 2017, fuelled by a long-running bid by setlers to take over nearby Palestinian homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Despite mounting international condemnation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he supported the Israeli police force’s “just struggle” amid the Jerusalem clashes.
“We insist on guaranteeing the (religious) rights of all, and this from time to time requires the stability and steadfastness that the Israeli police and our security forces are currently displaying,” he said.
Police said Jewish “prayers continue as usual” at the Wailing Wall, which adjoins the esplanade, adding that “we will not let extremists threaten the safety of the public.”
The UN Security Council was to meet at Tunisia’s request later Monday on the unrest that has escalated since the last Friday prayers of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
A key court hearing scheduled for Monday on Sheikh Jarrah, the flashpoint east Jerusalem neighbourhood at the centre of the property dispute, has meanwhile been postponed.
There were fears of further violence ahead of a planned march Monday by Israelis to commemorate the takeover of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-day War, an anniversary known as “Jerusalem Day” in the Jewish state.
Israeli police had, as of Sunday, approved the march, which was re-scheduled to start around 5:00 pm.
The Palestinian Red Crescent put the toll at 305 injured, including more than 200 who were hospitalised, five of them in critical condition.
Three people lost one eye each, said surgeon Firas Abu Akari at east Jerusalem’s Maqassed hospital.
Near the Old City, a car carrying Israelis was pelted with stones, lost control and rammed into Palestinians, according to police and footage from a journalist on the scene.
Once stopped, the vehicle was atacked by around a dozen people who continued to hurl projectiles at the passengers before an Israeli policeman dispersed the crowd by firing into the air. The Israeli police reported nine injuries in their ranks.
The United States expressed “serious concerns” about the situation.
In a White House statement, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan “encouraged the Israeli government to pursue appropriate measures to ensure calm during Jerusalem Day commemorations.”
The Israeli role in the hostilities - especially Friday’s clashes at Al Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest site - has met widespread criticism.
All six Arab nations that have diplomatic ties with Israel - Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan - have condemned the state.