Israeli-Palestinian clashes erupt at Jerusalem shrine

JERUSALEM - Israeli police in riot gear stormed the square outside al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, to confront stone-throwing Palestinians on Friday in the latest outbreak of violence at the flashpoint shrine.

Police said they fired rubber bullets and tossed stun grenades after hundreds of Muslims leaving Friday prayers threw stones at security men and Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall below.

Shmuel Rabinovitch, chief rabbi at the Western Wall -- the most sacred site of Jewish prayer -- said police rushed in and evacuated worshippers after a single stone fell into the plaza.

Palestinians said police acted without provocation.

Authorities said 14 Palestinians were arrested at the site, which Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews revere as the Temple Mount.

Tensions have been high since Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza on March 22 -- a strike Israel called self-defence against an "arch-terrorist" but Palestinians condemned as state-sponsored assassination.

A Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after Ariel Sharon, Israel's opposition leader at the time and now prime minister, visited the compound, which is at the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

In the latest clash, Palestinians chanting "With our souls and our blood we will redeem you, Palestine" darted between al-Aqsa's ancient columns as they rained stones on helmeted police lined up with plastic shields.

Some protesters sought refuge inside the sanctuary, which stands on a plateau in the Old City, and police later agreed to allow them to leave peacefully.

"Police forces stormed the Mount and pushed back the stonethrowers," a police spokesman said.

Adnan Husseini, director of the Islamic Waqf, which oversees the compound, said at least four people were injured.

"No one threw stones," he told Reuters. "They (police) started doing this every Friday to scare elderly worshippers as younger ones are already banned. This is flagrant violation of freedom of worship."

Israel seized East Jerusalem, including the walled Old City where the compound is located, in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of a future state.

Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said a ban on Palestinian males under 45 entering the shrine had been lifted this Friday because of intelligence assessments that the risk of rioting had diminished.

"Intelligence sometimes turns out to be wrong," he said. "There were hundreds of rioters."

- REUTERS