Palestinians on Friday clashed with Israeli security forces in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank after the Muslim movement Hamas called for a “day of rage” over tensions at the al-Aqsa mosque site.
In Jerusalem, three police officers were injured when a firebomb struck their van in the Jabal Mukaber District and eight Palestinians were arrested, including at least three young people, police said.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters pelted them with stones in city neighborhoods around the Mount of Olives, including in Shuafat refugee camp.
However, the situation was calm in the Old City and at the al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Officials said about 3,000 police had deployed after three days of violence this week at the sensitive site during the Jewish new year.
A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, struck a parked bus in the southern Israeli town of Sderot without causing casualties, police said. Another rocket was intercepted by Israel’s “Iron Dome” defense system.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rockets, which triggered a series of Israeli air raids on Gaza.
In the West Bank, a journalist reported that skirmishes were more intense than normal for a Friday, which has become a day of protests following weekly Muslim prayers.
At Kafr Kaddum near Nablus, Israeli gunfire wounded three Palestinians in their arms and legs, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Young people hurled projectiles at police near Ofer prison, the Qalandiya checkpoint and Jalazun refugee camp — flashpoints in the long-running conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Red Crescent said a total of seven Palestinians were wounded by live fire and 44 by rubber bullets.
The protesters adopted the same slogan everywhere.
“By our soul and our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you al-Aqsa,” hundreds of them gathered in Nablus and the Gaza Strip chanted.
Known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), the compound houses the famous golden Dome of the Rock shrine and al-Aqsa mosque.
As the location of Judaism’s biblical temples, it is known as the Temple Mount to Jews, who are allowed to visit but cannot pray there to avoid further raising tensions.
It is the third-holiest site in Islam.
Police had set up heavily manned checkpoints on streets leading up to the site on Friday, before an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 worshipers prayed, down from the average of 25,000 to 35,000.
“It’s a front line,” said Mazen Shawish, 52.
“You have to go though 20 military checkpoints to get to the mosque,” he said.
Hundreds of young men denied entry prayed just outside the Old City walls.
Police said they had an intelligence warning that young Arabs were planning fresh confrontations.
Police planned to keep them away by limiting the age of worshipers to 40 and above for men.
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