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Itongadol.- Chaos gripped the Temple Mount Sunday morning after masked Palestinians hurled stones and shot fireworks at police officers who received information that a potential riot had been planned throughout the night.
Forcing the doors of al-Aksa mosque open by wedging metal bars, furniture and other items between them, the Palestinians amassed stones, wooden planks, fireworks and prepared petrol bombs inside the place of worship, and targeted officers and members of the Border Police as they organized themselves in the stairwells leading up to the surrounding plaza.
The rioters also made creative use of umbrellas used to provide shade to fasting worshipers in the hot sun during Ramadan. They planted the umbrellas in the mosque reportedly in preparation for close quarters brawling that would have ensued had the the officers chased them further inside the buildings.
Regular police and Border Police managed to enter the mosque despite the airborne debris, finally closing the doors and ending the incident.
The Temple Mount was opened for public visitations shortly after the clashes.
Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev said the situation on the Temple Mount cannot continue, and blamed it on “police incompetence in dealing with the rioters.”
Regev called on Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to instruct the police to allow all Jews to enter the Temple Mount according to the status quo, meaning, without prayer.
“The Temple Mount is a holy place for Jews and Muslims. The government must make sure that Jews can go on the Temple Mount throughout the entire year, certainly on Tisha B’Av,” Regev said.
Sunday is Tisha B’Av, a major Jewish fast day marking the anniversary of the destruction of both Holy Temples, which stood on the Temple Mount.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should personally instruct police and security forces to stop the rioting on the Temple Mount and allow Jews to observe Tisha B’Av appropriately.
“We cannot allow, in sovereign Israel, for Jews not to be able to mark such an important day for us. Today’s events are a result of the lack of reaction and weakness of the government in facing a chain of recent terrorist events in Jerusalem, which encourages the rioting Arabs to continue escalating their actions,” Liberman stated.
Providing his own insight in the clash between security forces and Palestinian rioters, President Reuven Rivlin lamented the violence in light of Tisha B\’Av.
"The acts of violence and terrorism committed especially today, against the worshipers at holy sites, must be condemned unequivocally."
“I express my support for the security forces," Rivlin added "for their determination to prevent any harm or interference to the prayers at the Western Wall, the remnant of our Temple.
"Such acts of hatred cannot be tolerated and we will not allow any disturbances to prevent Jews from praying at this holy site.”