Israeli police announced Wednesday night, April 5, that they had intervened inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem to dislodge "agitators" who had introduced "fireworks, sticks and stones".

Denouncing "an unprecedented crime," the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, called on Palestinians in the West Bank "to turn out en masse to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to defend it."

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is located on the Esplanade of Mosques, Islam's third holiest site in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the Holy City occupied and annexed by Israel. The Esplanade is built on what Jews call the Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism.

Renewed violence

The violence comes shortly before the middle of Ramadan and as Jews prepare to celebrate Passover from Wednesday evening, while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen a sharp upsurge in violence since the beginning of the year.

Israeli police released video footage lasting more than 50 seconds showing explosions of what appear to be fireworks inside the place of worship, and on which silhouettes can be seen throwing stones. Another police video footage shows riot police advancing into the mosque protecting themselves from rocket fire with shields. The footage then shows a door barricaded with fireworks batteries on a carpet on the ground and police evacuating at least five people with their hands cuffed behind their backs.

"Tonight, as police were working to allow large numbers of Muslims to celebrate the month of Ramadan and arrive in Jerusalem's Old City and the Temple Mount, several masked youths and agitators brought fireworks, sticks and stones inside the mosque," Israel Police said in a statement.

"These ringleaders barricaded themselves there several hours after [the last evening prayers] in order to attack public order and desecrate the mosque," while chanting "slogans inciting hatred and violence," the text added.

"Rioters"

"After many long and unsuccessful attempts to get them out through dialogue, the police forces were forced [to intervene] to dislodge them in order to allow [the first dawn prayers] to take place and to prevent violent disturbances," the police said.

During the intervention, "a large group of agitators" fired fireworks and threw stones inside the mosque in the direction of the police, the police wrote, indicating that an officer had been injured by a stone in the leg. The security forces "arrested the rioters", who "caused damage to the mosque and desecrated it", adds the text without specifying the number of people detained.

Night protest in Gaza

Following the announcement of the clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, several rockets were fired from the northern Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. AFP journalists saw three rockets coming from afar, and witnesses said they saw others. The Israeli military reported the setting off of warning sirens in several Israeli urban areas around the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said five rockets fired at Israeli territory had been "intercepted by air defenses" in the Sderot area (southern Israel), and that four other rockets had fallen in uninhabited areas.

In Gaza, dozens of protesters took to the streets in several places overnight, burning tires. "We swear to defend and protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque," they proclaimed.

With AFP

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