Israeli Police Confront Worshippers and Protesters at Al Aqsa, Violence Ensues
Boston Globe
By Ori Lewis | February 9, 2007
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police forces entered the area around Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and fired stun grenades at stone-throwing Palestinian worshippers in clashes at the end of Friday prayers.
Muslim leaders had called for protests over excavations near Islam’s third holiest shrine. Arab states had asked Israel to halt the work, charging it could undermine the foundations of Al-Aqsa. Israel says the work will do no damage.
A police spokesman at the scene said 15 policemen and nine protesters had been lightly injured in the clashes. Seventeen people were arrested, some of them in the streets outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls
…Maher al-Ami, a journalist for Jerusalem’s al-Quds newspaper, said: “We were at Friday prayers and suddenly they [the Israelis] began to shout and throw stun grenades.”
Adnan Husseini, director of the Muslim organisation Waqf, said: ‘We are surrounded. There is one gate still open but they [the Israelis] won’t let anyone leave.”
Rosenfeld said: “Seventeen policemen were hurt, nine of them taken to hospital. Seventeen Arab rioters were arrested and police are in full control.
“Around 150 worshippers are now leaving in peace and quiet after dialogue between police and Muslim representatives.”