Days of Palestine – Jerusalem

A large number of Israeli police forces stormed and encircled the Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday morning, firing rubber-coated bullets, tear gas, and sound grenades at Palestinian worshippers, injuring hundreds.

At least six journalists suffered from their exposure to tear gas during their coverage of the Israeli raid on the Aqsa Mosque compound, according to local sources.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded and at least 50 people have been hospitalized.

The Red Crescent also said its paramedics were denied access to the holy site to provide medical assistance for the wounded.

“There are hundreds of people injured from the clashes,” the medical group said in a press release.

Several videos showed tear gas canisters being fired inside the grey-domed Qibli Mosque, and stun grenades being fired on Palestinian women inside the Dome of the Rock Mosque.

Some of the Mosque’s interior doors, windows and furniture also sustained damage in the police attack.

The renewed police violence has taken place as thousands of extremist Jewish settlers started flocking in the morning to the occupied east Jerusalem and its Old City to defile the Aqsa Mosque as part of their annual Jerusalem reunification day flag rally that marks the day when east Jerusalem was occupied in 1967 and later annexed by Israel – in a move not recognized by the majority of the international community.

This settler march usually sees Jewish acts of rampage and provocation through Palestinian areas in the Old City and east Jerusalem neighborhoods.

The Israeli government and police on Sunday gave the green light to Monday’s Jewish settler parade despite the rising friction and potential for further violence.