Clouds of apparently teargas hang over the area and police fired stun grenades to disperse the angry crowd following the end of Friday prayers. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but they were expected as the clashes seemed serious.
Police said forces entered the area around the mosque after being pelted with stones, but denied they fired rubber bullets as initially reported by Israel Radio.
Muslim leaders had called for protests over excavations near the complex known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount.
MUSLIMS ANGRY
Local Muslim leaders backed by Arab states asked Israel to halt the excavations, charging it
could damage the mosque’s foundations.
However Israel said the "holy places" would "not be harmed" by what it called "an attempt, mandated by law, to salvage artifacts" before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the complex.
The Jerusalem-based International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), an evangelical group supporting Israel’s right to exist, said Israeli parliamentarians agreed Thursday, February 8, "to install security cameras at the Mughrabi excavation site" to broadcast "real-time footage of the construction outside the Temple Mount" to dispel fears that the site world be damaged.
CAMERAS INSTALLED
"The cameras are intended to prove to the countries in the Arab world that no damage is being done to [the] mosques as a result of the excavation," the ICEJ said, quoting members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
However Arab leaders reportedly rejected those assurances. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades linked to the Palestinian territories-based Fatah group, reportedly joined the Israel-based Islamic Movement in urging the Muslim world to retaliate with violence for Israel’s "destructive" actions near the Temple Mount.
"The Fatah party Martyrs’ Brigades declared on Wednesday, February 7, that they would attack Jewish synagogues if any damage were done to the Muslim holy site," ICEJ said. There were no immediate signs of that Friday, February 9, although the violence suggested that tensions were rising.
