Agencies-Gaza post
Damascus Gate clashes: Tens of Palestinians injured by Israeli forces
Damascus Gate clashes, tens of Palestinians were wounded during clashes with Israeli occupation forces outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday according to local sources.
Israeli soldiers launched teargas and stun grenades in front of Damascus Gate, as Palestinians gathered after prayers on the second night of Ramadan, sources said.
Israeli media reported that they arrested 10 Palestinians in these clashes with one soldier was wounded when a bottle was thrown at his face. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 11 people were wounded in the clashes.
On Sunday afternoon, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid stormed the site of Damascus Gate and met the soldiers.
“This is a tense period, but we have a police force we can trust to take us through it,” he said in remarks relayed by his office. “I’m proud of our officers.”
Earlier on Sunday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett there must be quiet between Israelis and Palestinians.
During a telephone call with Mr. Bennett, the king stressed the matter of performing calm in order to bypass any escalation in the Palestinian territories”, the royal court reported.
King Abdullah called for releasing all barriers to Muslim prayers at the Al Aqsa mosque compound, especially with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, and to stop provocations that could direct to an escalation”.
Bennett met also the leader of the Shin Bet interior security service and a West Bank military chief on Sunday.
This reached after an Israeli process near Jenin on Saturday, during which three Palestinians were killed in a gunfight involving Israeli special forces.
Last year in Ramadan, massive clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinians praying in east Jerusalem at the Al Aqsa mosque compound guided to 11 days of violent conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip.