In the midst of the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan, and shortly before the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover, violent clashes broke out between Palestinians and the Israeli police in the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The police arrested more than 350 people according to information today. The ruling Hamas in the Gaza Strip condemned the operation as an “unprecedented crime”. Rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, and Israel responded with airstrikes.
Israeli police said they entered the mosque to evict “troublemakers” who had brought “firecrackers, sticks and stones” into the place of worship. The intruders barricaded themselves in the mosque after evening prayers and shouted “slogans inciting hatred and violence”.
