Israeli police clash with Palestinians at Jerusalem flashpoint

[Scurrilous]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=507861

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"Hundreds of police clashed with stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators yesterday on the Temple Mount outside the al-Aqsa mosque yesterday. The confrontation after Muslim Friday prayers was one of the sharpest at the site, which is holy to both Muslim and Jews, since the present intifada began three and half years ago.

Police, who arrested 14 people, said that they fired stun grenades, tear gas and rubber pellets in an attempt to disperse what had become hundreds of stone-throwers after the end of Friday prayers. Palestinians reported at least 15 people were injured.

Many hundreds of Muslims withdrew to the mosque, some emerging to continue throwing stones at police, until an end to the stand-off was negotiated between the Jerusalem police chief, Mickey Levy, and leaders of the Muslim Waqf, which is in charge of the mosque. The worshippers left quietly in return for the police agreeing to make no further arrests.

The trouble appeared to have started after some Palestinian youths threw stones at police deployed in the area. In response, hundreds of officers with helmets and plastic shields moved rapidly into the walled mosque compound to disperse the crowd. The Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said that Muslims had thrown only one stone at Jewish worshippers, and that visitors had continued to come to the Western Wall plaza. Witnesses said that Mohammed Hussein, a senior official in the administration of the mosque compound, tried to calm the situation, urging worshippers to return home."