Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and fired tear gas at Palestinians after Friday prayers hours despite signing a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Dozens of Palestinian worshipers were injured in the attack at the Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, report Al Jazeera and Reuters.
The attacks wounded some 20 people, according to a written statement by the Palestinian Red Crescent. Two of the injured were taken to a nearby hospital, the group said.
Witnesses inside the compound said that after Friday prayers many Palestinians stayed at the premises to celebrate the ceasefire between Hamas and the Israeli government.
“They were singing and chanting when a contingent of the Israeli police [stationed] next to the compound came into the compound and started using crowd control measures that they use all the time, including stun grenades, smoke bombs and tear gas,” Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said.
“They started firing in that crowd in an effort to try and disperse them.”
The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into effect in the early hours of Friday after 11 days of the relentless Israeli bombing of the besieged enclave and thousands of rockets launched into Israel by Hamas, the group ruling the Strip.
Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank poured onto the streets to celebrate the ceasefire, waving flags and flashing the “V” sign for victory.
Egypt said it would send two delegations to monitor the truce as the warring parties said they were ready to retaliate for any violations.
Civilians on both sides of the front line were sceptical.
“I don’t agree to (a truce). What is a ceasefire? What does it mean?” said Samira Abdallah Naseer, a mother of 11 children sitting near the wreckage of a building near Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip.
“We returned to our houses, and we found no place to sit, no water, no electricity, no mattresses, nothing,” she said.
In a cafe in the Israeli port city of Ashdod, north of Gaza, student Dan Kiri, 25, said Israel should continue targeting Hamas until it collapsed.
“The fact that we are sitting here, peacefully drinking coffee and eating our croissant, it’s only a matter of time until the next operation in Gaza,” he said.
The violence erupted on May 10, triggered by Palestinians’ anger at what they saw as Israeli curbs on their rights in Jerusalem, including during police confrontations with protesters at Al-Aqsa mosque during the Ramadan fasting month.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza killed at least 243 Palestinians, including 66 children, and brought widespread devastation to the already impoverished territory. On the Israeli side, 12 people, including two children, were killed.❐
