Scores of people were injured on Saturday as Israeli forces targeted Palestinians outside the Old City of Jerusalem for the second night as tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers prayed at the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque on Lailatul Qadr.
\nPalestinian youth threw stones, lit fires and tore down police barricades in the streets leading to the walled Old City gates as officers on horseback and in riot gear used stun grenades and water cannons to repel them.
\nAt least 80 people were injured, including minors and a one-year-old, and 14 were taken to hospital, the Palestine Red Crescent said. Israeli police said at least one officer was hurt.
\n\u201cThey do not want us to pray. There is a fight every day, every day there are clashes. Every day there are troubles,\u201d said Mahmoud al-Marbua, 27, speaking near the Old City\u2019s Damascus Gate.
\nPointing to police chasing youths and firing thunder-flashes at them, he added: \u201cLook how they are firing at us. How can we live?\u201d
\nTensions have mounted in the city throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramazan, amid growing anger over the potential eviction of Palestinians from Jerusalem homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers.
\nIn the Palestinian Gaza Strip, hundreds of protesters gathered along the border with Israel. The Israeli military said the crowds threw burning tyres and firecrackers toward the troops.
\nGaza militants fired at least one rocket into Israel which landed in an open area, the military said.
\n\u201cWe salute the ppl. of Al-Aqsa, who oppose the arrogance of the Zionists & we call on our ppl. in Palestine to support their brothers by all means,\u201d Moussa Abu Marzouk, a leader of the armed Islamist group Hamas that rules Gaza, said on Twitter.
\nIsrael said it was beefing up security forces on Saturday in anticipation of further confrontations in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Gaza after fierce clashes erupted the previous night at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
\nA Palestinian official said Egypt was mediating between the sides to prevent further escalation and Saturday\u2019s violence appeared less pronounced than Friday\u2019s events.
\nOn Friday, police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades towards rock-hurling Palestinian youths at the mosque on the Noble Sanctuary\/Temple Mount plaza holy to both Muslims and Jews.
\nAt least 205 Palestinians and 18 Israeli officers were injured in Friday\u2019s confrontations, which drew international condemnations and calls for calm.
\nClashes have erupted nightly in East Jerusalem\u2019s Sheikh Jarrah \u2014 a neighbourhood where numerous Palestinian families face eviction in a long-running legal case. Police said dozens of protesters threw stones at officers there on Saturday.
\nPolice Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said extra officers were being deployed in Jerusalem on Saturday to \u201cenable freedom of worship and maintain order and security\u201d.
\n\u201cAt the same time, we will not allow violent riots, lawbreaking or the harming of police officers. We ask everyone to calm the spirits and violence, particularly on such an important day for the Muslim religion,\u201d Shabtai said in a statement.
\nThe Israeli military said it was boosting troops in the West Bank and near the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have sent incendiary balloons over the border, igniting brushfires in Israeli territory. A military spokesman said extra forces there would largely be firefighting ones.
\nQuartet appeal
\nThe Middle East quartet of mediators \u2014 the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations \u2014 expressed concern over the violence and potential Jerusalem evictions.
\n\u201cWe call upon Israeli authorities to exercise restraint and to avoid measures that would further escalate the situation during this period of Muslim Holy Days,\u201d the Quartet said in a statement.
\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that law and order would be maintained in Jerusalem as would the right to worship.
\nTelevision footage showed buses of Muslim worshippers heading from Israeli Arab cities to Al-Aqsa being stopped by police on the main highway to Jerusalem.
\nWord of the roadblock spread on social media, drawing hundreds of young men from nearby Arab villages and from Jerusalem.
\nDozens drove their cars the wrong way down the now-empty Jerusalem-bound lanes, picking up fellow Muslims who had abandoned their own vehicles to start the uphill trek on foot. Some chanted in Arabic: \u201cWith our souls and our blood, we will redeem you, Al-Aqsa!\u201d
\nPolice said it was stopping only those planning to take part in riots before the buses were allowed to proceed. Scuffles broke out and footage showed officers firing stun grenades.
\nTension was expected to remain high over the next few days. Israel\u2019s Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the Sheikh Jarrah evictions on Monday, the same day that Israel marks Jerusalem Day \u2014 its annual celebration of its capture of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East war.
\nPalestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Israel claims the entire city as its eternal, indivisible capital. Its annexation of the eastern section was not recognised internationally.
\nPM Imran calls for immediate action
\nPrime Minister Imran Khan strongly condemned the attacks and said they violated \u201call norms of humanity and international law\u201d.
\n\u201cWe reiterate support for Palestinian people,\u201d he said and further called upon the international community to take immediate action for the protection of \u201cPalestinians and their legitimate rights\u201d.
\nMeanwhile, President Dr Arif Alvi said it was a \u201cshame that Israeli apartheid against Palestinians continues\u201d.
\nTerming the attack on worshippers \u201catrocious\u201d, Alvi asked the Palestinians to not lose hope. \u201cTime is near when international politics will be based on morality [and] not on vested interests,\u201d he tweeted.
\n\u201cPakistan has always strongly condemned Israeli attacks on Palestine,\u201d said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a statement, adding that there was no moral or political justification for the oppression and eviction of Palestinians.
\nHe said that making worshippers involved in prayer on the night of 27th Ramazan the targets of violence was condemnable and that persecution of Palestinians was not acceptable in any situation.
\nQureshi reiterated that Palestinians should get their rights and Pakistan stood with Palestine.
\n\u201cPakistan is a champion of the rights of Palestinians and has always taken a clear and firm stand on Palestine.
\n\u201cI am glad that the Arab League has called an emergency meeting in this regard. I think the Arab League, the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) and the Muslim world should work together to speak out against this barbarism and draw the attention of human rights activists [and] Western countries,\u201d said the foreign minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scores of people were injured on Saturday as Israeli forces targeted Palestinians outside the Old City of Jerusalem for the second night as tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers prayed at the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque on Lailatul Qadr. Palestinian youth threw stones, lit fires and tore down police barricades in the streets leading to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n