Palestinians,
Israeli police clash at Jerusalem shrine for third day
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[September 15, 2015]
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police
armed with stun grenades and tear gas clashed with rock-throwing
Palestinian youths who barricaded themselves inside Jerusalem's al-Aqsa
mosque on Tuesday, police and witnesses said, in the third day of
violence at the sacred site.
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Masked Palestinians hurled flares at the security forces, who said
they were trying to secure the plaza outside Islam's third holiest
shrine to stop what they called Palestinian attempts to disrupt
visits to the compound on Jewish New Year.
The United States and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon both said
they are concerned about the violence at the site, revered by
Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount.
King Abdullah from neighboring Jordan said the Israeli actions were
provocative and could imperil ties between the countries, state
media reported in Tuesday and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
condemned Israel's actions.
Jordan's Hashemite dynasty derives part of its legitimacy from its
traditional custodianship of the holy site. Jordan and Israel signed
a peace treaty in 1994.
"If this continues to happen ... Jordan will have no choice but to
take action," King Abdullah was quoted as saying without
elaborating. Palestinian Presidency Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeinah
said Abbas and King Abdullah had discussed the events by phone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold an
emergency ministerial meeting late on Tuesday, called after an
Israeli motorist died in a crash police said was caused by suspected
stone-throwing.
STONE-THROWING
Twenty-six Palestinians were injured on Tuesday, none of them
seriously, the Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency
unit, Amin Abu Ghazaleh, said.
Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said five officers were
lightly wounded and two Palestinians were arrested.
Some stone throwing spread to other areas of the Old City, police
and a witness said, with no injuries reported.
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Jewish ultra-nationalists have been pushing the Israeli government
to allow Jewish prayer on the compound outside al-Aqsa, which stands
above Judaism's Western Wall.
Such worship, certain to stir Muslim anger, has been banned on the
plaza by Israel since it captured East Jerusalem, and its Old City,
in the 1967 Middle East war and Netanyahu has said he would not
allow any change to the status quo.
There have been surges of clashes and stone-throwing in Jerusalem in
recent months and Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been frozen
since 2014.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967
war, as the capital of a state they aspire to establish in the
occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its indivisible and eternal
capital, a claim not recognized internationally.
(Reporting by Ammar Awad, Maayan Lubell and Ali Sawafta; Additional
reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman and Louis Charbonneau in
New York; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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