Israeli forces attack Palestinian protesters outside al-Aqsa compound

Rasa - At least 70 Palestinians have been injured during clashes with Israeli forces in East Jerusalem al-Quds.

News ID: 431077

Date: 19 July 2017 - 23:12

RNA - The clashes erupted on Tuesday after Israeli troops fired teargas at demonstrators who had gathered outside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in protest to the Tel Aviv regime’s restrictive measures imposed on the holy Muslim site.

One of the people wounded by the Israeli forces was Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the imam of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Earlier in the day, Israeli forces attacked Palestinians staging a sit-in outside the compound’s main entrance for the third consecutive day after Tel Aviv implemented the new measures that ban worshipers from performing their prayers freely in the mosque.

Israeli forces on Sunday reopened the compound, which includes the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, two days after they closed it following a deadly shooting in the area.

Muslims, however, refused to enter the site in protest to the newly-imposed security measures, including the installation of metal detectors and cameras. Dozens of worshipers held prayers outside the compound.

The occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed new tensions ever since Israeli forces introduced restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.

More than 300 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces in the ongoing tensions since the beginning of October 2015.

The Tel Aviv regime has tried to change the demographic makeup of Jerusalem al-Quds over the past decades by constructing settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population. Palestinians say the Israeli measures are aimed at paving the way for the Judaization of the city.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a flashpoint Islamic site, which is also holy to Jews. The mosque is Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

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