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Jerusalem:
Israeli police have entered Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque compound to
disperse Palestinian protesters who they said threw stones at police
officers and Jewish worshippers nearby.
Security forces fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades to
disperse the demonstrators following Friday prayers.
The Reuters news agency reported that 30 people were injured in the
clash.
Shmulik Ben Rubi, a Jerusalem police spokesman, said officers
"intervened in the compound after stones were thrown at Jewish
worshippers at the Wailing Wall" below.
Najeh Btirat, an official with the Muslim clerical authority that
administers the compound, said the clash followed a mosque sermon on
the issue.
"The Friday sermon focused on the Islamic sites that are being
targeted by Israel and the need to preserve them," he said. About
300 young men threw stones at police after prayers, he said.
'Minimum force'
Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, reported:
"Medical sources are telling us that a lot of the Palestinians who
were injured were fired on by rubber bullets from the Israeli
police.
"But that is something the Israeli police tell us did not happen -
they have not been using any ammunition live or otherwise."
Mickey Rosenfeld, the Israeli police spokesman, told Al Jazeera that
police used only the "minimum amount of force" against the
protesters.
"Only stun grenades were used, in fact, to disperse those rioters.
Nine of our officers were injured at the scene and treated in
hospital," he said.
"Our main aim is to continue a calmness - a respectable calmness -
on the Friday prayers on the Temple Mount, as well as in East
Jerusalem."
Skirmishes
The compound, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to
Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has been the site of a number of
such incidents.
Clashes there on Sunday have been linked in part to a decision by
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to include two sites
in the occupied West Bank on a list of Israeli heritage sites.
Skirmishes also broke out after Friday prayers in the West Bank city
of Hebron, but no serious injuries were reported.
A group of about 100 Palestinians protested outside the holy site
known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the
Ibrahimi mosque.
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