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Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013, on Sunday called for free access to the holy sites in Jerusalem as he delivered his annual Easter address amid simmering violence between the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and Palestinians in the Holy City.
“May there be peace for the Middle East, racked by years of conflict and division. On this glorious day, let us ask for peace upon Jerusalem and peace upon all those who love her, Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. May Israelis, Palestinians, and all who dwell in the Holy City, together with the pilgrims, experience the beauty of peace, dwell in a fraternity, and enjoy free access to the Holy Places in mutual respect for the rights of each,” he said.
The latest confrontations take the number of wounded since Friday to more than 200 among Palestinians, at a tense time when the Jewish Passover festival coincides with Ramadan. They also follow deadly violence by IOF in the occupied West Bank in late March and early this month that has killed 36 people.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said more than 200 Palestinians were wounded, including at least five who were hospitalized. It said some had been wounded with rubber-coated steel bullets.
Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-sheik said on Sunday that “Israel’s dangerous escalation in Al Aqsa compound is a blatant attack on our holy places”, and called on the international community to intervene.
The chief of the Hamas Movement meanwhile warned Israel that “Al Aqsa is ours and ours alone”.
“Our people have the right to access it and pray in it, and we will not bow down to [Israeli] repression and terror,” Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement.
Later Sunday morning, mosques in Palestinian neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem broadcast calls for people to head towards the Al Aqsa compound.
Twenty-two Palestinians have been killed over the same period, including assailants who targeted Israelis, according to an AFP tally.
On Friday morning, IOF stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and brutally attacked Palestinians in its compound, including inside Al Aqsa Mosque, drawing strong condemnation from Muslim countries. Those confrontations wounded some 150 people.
The United Nations has called for calm, a year after confrontations in and around the mosque compound escalated into an 11-day war between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.
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