JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli police clashed with masked, stone-throwing Palestinians at a holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem when violence erupted after Friday’s Ramadan morning prayers, police said.
Tensions have been simmering in Jerusalem, with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coinciding with the Jewish celebration of Passover and Christianity’s Easter festival this year. And Israeli security forces have been on high alert after a series of deadly Arab street attacks throughout the country during the past two weeks.
Police said they entered the compound, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, to break up a violent crowd that remained at the end of the morning prayers.
When a group of Palestinians began throwing rocks toward the nearby Jewish prayer space of the Western Wall, police said they entered the compound “to disperse and push back” the crowd.
The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said 59 people were injured.
(Reporting by Sinan Abu Mayzer, Ammar Awad, Ari Rabinovitch)
