Israeli police clashed with Muslim protestors on Sunday at a flashpoint Jerusalem Old City shrine as Jews were headed there to mark a religious holiday, reports Dawn.
According to the police, in the early hours of the morning, Palestinian “youths began throwing stones at the Temple Mount esplanade towards police forces, who dispersed them”. There were no official reports of arrests or injuries.
The incident took place on the Jewish festival of Tisha B’av, when according to tradition, both Jewish temples located on the Temple Mount were destroyed.
The Waqf condemned the “violations and attacks” carried out by “Jewish fanatic groups, with the support and political cover of the Israeli government,” it said in a statement carried by official Palestinian website Wafa, claiming Israel was “aiming for a religious war”.
Newly sworn-in premier Naftali Bennett, who is from Israel’s religious right but heads a coalition including leftist and Islamist parties, said he had “instructed that the organised and safe visits by Jews to the Temple Mount continue while maintaining order at the site”.
In a second statement following the Waqf and PA condemnations, Bennett stressed that “freedom of worship on the Temple Mount will be fully preserved for Muslims as well”, pointing to the upcoming Eidul Azha.
