The escalation of violence during the month of Ramadan in Jerusalem has entered the day with the greatest tension this Monday. At least 275 Palestinians have been injured, of whom about 200 have had to be hospitalized, according to the Red Crescent, in clashes with the Israeli police during morning prayer at the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holy place. Images disseminated through social networks showed the faithful among the smoke of tear gas grenades inside the temple, while a pitched battle with stones was taking place on the esplanade of the religious site, and with the launch of stun grenades by the security forces , 12 of whose agents suffered injuries, according to a statement from the Ministry of Public Security.
An agent tries to protect a Jewish Israeli driver, after he was attacked by Palestinians after crashing his vehicle and running over a young man.ohad zwigenberg / AP
More than 500 Palestinians and some three dozen agents have been injured since last Friday in one of the most serious waves of clashes since the Second Intifada (2000-2005), in an escalation that has raised the alert of the international community.
The United States, Israel's main ally, has asked the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ease the tension in the Holy City.
The UN Security Council will address this situation of increasing violence on the agenda of its session this afternoon.
The police have banned Israelis from the Esplanade of the Mosques, called by the Jews Temple Mount, in celebration of Jerusalem Day.
These visits are traditional in commemoration of the capture of the eastern part of the city by the Israeli Army during the Six Day War in 1967, which takes place this Monday according to the Jewish calendar.
In the afternoon, tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists and settlers are expected to march with the flag of the Star of David through the Muslim quarter of the Old City, in a provocative procession that triggers tension every year.
Government sources cited by the Hebrew press pointed out that the route of the traditional nationalist parade can be modified to avoid passing through the most conflictive areas.
A wounded man is taken by ambulance around the Al Aqsa mosque this Monday.
DPA via Europa Press / Europa Press
An Israeli driver who lost control of his vehicle and ran over a protester in a fighting area near the walled compound was about to be lynched by Palestinian youths, who believed that he had deliberately tried to run over them, before being rescued by an agent. of police at gunpoint, according to videos that circulated on social media.
At the request of Israel's attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, the Supreme Court on Sunday postponed the publication of the final sentence, which was announced for this Monday, on the eviction of several Palestinian families from the houses they have occupied for seven decades in the district. from Sheikh Yarrah, north of the historic center.
Along with the protests against the police barriers placed in Ramadan at the Damascus Gate, the main access to the Muslim quarter, the citizen mobilization to stop the evictions of Sheikh Yarrah, which had been brought to justice by a settler association linked to the extreme right, has been behind the origin of the outbreak in Jerusalem during the holy month of Islam.
In both cases, Israel has had to backtrack to prevent violence from spilling over.
Police detain a Palestinian in Jerusalem this Monday.
OPEN SULTAN / EFE
Thousands of police officers plus the (militarized) border corps have been deployed in East Jerusalem, which is predominantly Palestinian in population. The Army has reinforced its units with several battalions in the areas of the West Bank closest to Jerusalem. The protests have also spread to the north of the country, where most of the Arab minority of the Jewish state is concentrated (21% of the 9.2 million inhabitants). In the port city of Haifa the clashes after a demonstration left at least a dozen injured citizens of Palestinian origin.
“Jerusalem is experiencing a clash between tolerance and intolerance (...) that is not new; It has existed for hundreds of years, since the rise of the three monotheistic religions, ”Netanyahu said at a public event at noon on Monday. "Only under Israeli sovereignty, since 1967, have we witnessed a period that has guaranteed freedom of worship," added the prime minister, "although sometimes there are outbreaks that have to be firmly confronted by the security forces, at times. that I support in that effort ”. "Of course, the global press is wrong and misleading in its interpretation," he added.
A spokesman for the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, quoted by Reuters accused "the Israeli occupation forces of launching a brutal attack against Al Aqsa", and announced that the
Palestinian
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reserved all options to report the facts before the international community. The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The United Nations declared the city and its surroundings an international zone in the plan for the partition of Palestine under British mandate in 1947. But after a subsequent war, Israel seized the western part while Jordan administered the eastern part, which includes the Old City. After militarily occupying East Jerusalem nearly 54 years ago, Israel unilaterally annexed it.
In all negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis since the 1993 Oslo Accords, it is established that the final status of the Holy City must be part of a general peace agreement between both parties. For Israel, Jerusalem is its eternal and indivisible capital. The Palestinians aspire to make the eastern part the capital of their future state.