Riots breaks out on Jerusalem\’s Temple Mount for third straight day

 

When Israeli security forces entered the plaza of the site dozens of  face-covered Palestinian youth met them with a barrage of stones, blocks, and firecrackers, police said.  

 

The youth tried to block off the door to al-Aksa Mosque but the security forces managed to push them inside the building, Israel Radio reported. 

 

The police said it had secured the site to receive visitors after an unspecified number of suspects were arrested and five police officers were lightly injured and were treated at the scene.  

 

Twenty-six Palestinians were injured on Tuesday, none of them seriously, the Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency unit, Amin Abu Ghazaleh, said.

 

The rioting over the last days garnered expressions of concern from both the United States and Jordan. 

 

"The United States is deeply concerned by the increase in violence and escalating tensions surrounding the (al-)Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount," US State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday, referring to the contested holy site.

 

"We strongly condemn all acts of violence. It is absolutely critical that all sides exercise restraint, refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric and preserve unchanged the historic status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount."  

 

Jordan\’s King Abdullah warned Israel on Monday that any further "provocation" in Jerusalem  would damage ties between the two countries, AFP reported. 

 

"Any more provocation in Jerusalem will affect the relationship between Jordan and Israel," Abdullah said. Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994. 

 

"Jordan will not have a choice but to take actions, unfortunately," he said at a press conference in Amman with visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron.   

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called to convene an emergency ministerial meeting after the end of the Rosh Hashana holiday on Tuesday evening in light of the violence in Jerusalem. 

 

A statement from the Prime Minister\’s Office said the premier, "sees the severity of the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli citizens, and plans to fight the phenomenon by all means, including making punishments more severe and enforcement." 

 

In an incident in the capital on Sunday night, a man in his sixties died from his wounds in what police said may have been a rock-throwing terrorist attack on his car. 

 

Two other people who were driving with the man in his car were injured when they were pelted with stones, causing the driver to lose control and hit an electricity pole, police said. The incident took place near Asher Weiner Street in the capital\’s Arnona neighborhood.

 

Police were also checking the possibility that the fatal accident was caused by the driver\’s medical condition.