RAMALLAH – Dozens of Palestinians were wounded by Israeli forces during clashes that followed Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex in Jerusalem's Old City. Sheikh Abdulazeem Salhab, the head of Islamic Waqf Council in Jerusalem, said that the clashes erupted after Israeli police entered the complex through the Al-Magharebah Gate. Salhab added that at least 20 Palestinians sustained light injuries after Israeli police used clubs and stun grenades to disperse them. He added several others suffered from gas inhalation. They received medical treatment at the site by Palestinian paramedics, the official said. He added that the Israeli police closed all complex's gates and started arresting Palestinian worshipers. He added that at least 10 Palestinian worshipers were arrested. Shlomit Bajshi, deputy spokesman of Jerusalem police, said that several hundred Palestinian worshipers threw stones at police near the Al-Magharebah Gate. Tension in the Muslim's third holiest place has been on rise in the last week. On Thursday, Israeli police arrested six Palestinians as they confronted the entry of a Jewish group into the site. On Tuesday, Jerusalem police detained six Jewish worshipers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex including Moshe Feiglin, a far-right Knesset Member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party. The police said that Feiglin was detained after violating rules regarding Jewish prayer at the site. It added that three of the men were arrested for carrying concealed weapons and disorderly conduct, while two others were detained for disrupting the peace in the place. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the June 1967 War, annexed it in 1980, and has since built settlements there that are home to some 300,000 Jewish settlers. Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says the city is its eternal capital.
