Toddler’s death sparks clashes at Al-Aqsa mosque

CLASHES broke out yesterday at Jerusalem’s AlAqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, two days after a Palestinian toddler was burned alive in a firebombing by suspected Jewish extremists.

Police said masked Palestinian youths at the mosque threw stones at security forces while protesters held aloft photographs of the 18-monthold child killed in Friday’s arson attack in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli media reported that security forces later sought to create a barrier between the stonethrowers and tourists visiting the mosque complex, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.

Calm began to return to the hilltop complex in Jerusalem’s Old City later in the morning.

A wave of protests has swept the Palestinian territories since Friday’s firebombing, which also critically wounded the toddler’s four-year-old brother and parents.

There have also been demonstrations by Israelis and calls for a crackdown on Jewish extremists.

On Saturday, clashes broke out at Jalazon refugee camp in the West Bank, where the funeral took place for Laith Khaldi, 16, who the army said had been shot by soldiers after hurling a Molotov cocktail.

Clashes had also rocked Al-Aqsa a week ago when Palestinians were angered over Jews’ access to the compound on an annual day of Jewish mourning.

Visits are allowed to the complex, but Jewish prayer is prohibited.

Israeli police entered the mosque during those clashes to shut the doors and lock rioters inside.

Israel seized east Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. — AFP