Israeli police rush Temple Mount

JERUSALEM - Israeli police stormed Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound yesterday after Palestinians threw stones at Jewish worshippers below at a site where a Palestinian uprising erupted 10 months ago.

At least 15 policemen were injured by the stone-throwing Palestinians, a police spokesman said.

A Reuters television cameraman on the compound said at least one Palestinian was hurt when police fired teargas and stun grenades at the worshippers.

A police spokesman confirmed that a contingent of officers stormed the Temple Mount and dispersed the Muslim worshippers, some of whom had entered the mosques. "The police force has surrounded the mosques."

He said Muslim clerics at the site were trying to calm the situation.

Police evacuated Jewish worshippers from the Western Wall, where they were praying on a fasting day commemorating the destruction of the two biblical temples.

Israeli police were on heightened alert after warnings by Palestinian officials that a plan by a Jewish extremist group to a lay a 4.5-tonne marble cornerstone at the site could lead to confrontations.

The compound, where there are two mosques, is both Judaism's holiest site - the Temple Mount - and revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif.

A Reuters correspondent at the scene said about 50 police officers had stormed through a gate leading to the mosque compound. A helicopter hovered overhead.

The site in Jerusalem's Old City is where a Palestinian uprising erupted last September after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, then Opposition leader, visited the shrine.

More than 600 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in the violence since.

Israel had declared it would prevent the fringe right-wing Jewish group from placing the new cornerstone on the Temple Mount.

"We have no intention of letting anyone go up the hill or of hurting Muslim people," said Israel's Acting Public Security Minister, Ruby Rivlin.

"There will be no ceremony there. They are using this to create incitement against Israel."

Rivlin said responsibility for any confrontation at the Temple Mount rested with Islamic and Palestinian groups, who compared the Jewish activists' plan to place the cornerstone with September's visit to the compound by Sharon.

Palestinians claim that Sharon defiled the site and triggered the uprising.

Yesterday, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction called for a "day of rage" and urged Palestinians to mass at the site to thwart any effort by the Jewish group to lay the cornerstone.

Tensions remained high, with the Israeli Army reporting that it had fired tank shells at the West Bank town of Salfit, near Nablus, after Palestinians fired at the Jewish settlement of Ariel, damaging two houses.

Palestinian officials said Israeli forces fired 14 tank shells at Palestinian security locations north and west of Salfit.

The bombing wounded three civilians, four policemen and caused extensive damage.

Israel challenged the Palestinian Authority to do more to stop guerrilla bomb-makers after Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a building allegedly used by Palestinians to produce arms.

"The Palestinian Authority knows where all these activities are taking place but it doesn't do anything to stop them," said a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Oded Eran.

The Army said it struck near Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip to retaliate for three mortar bombs fired at a Jewish settlement in the coastal strip.

Thousands of Hamas group supporters trampled on Israeli flags at a rally in Nablus and pumped bullets into the air as they vowed to take revenge for Israel's assassination last week of militant Salah Darwaza.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

Map

UN: Information on the Question of Palestine

Israel's Permanent Mission to the UN

Palestine's Permanent Observer Mission to the UN

Middle East Daily

Arabic News

Arabic Media Internet Network

Jerusalem Post

Israel Wire

US Department of State - Middle East Peace Process