ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 429
Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s news as it unfolded.
Hundreds of Israeli police are deployed in and around Jerusalem’s Old City as Muslim worshipers arrive at the Temple Mount for Friday prayers.
Checkpoints are set up at all of the Old City’s gates, and K9 units are on patrol in the area.
Some roads leading to the flashpoint holy site are closed to traffic.
#Israeli police in #Musrara (East #Jerusalem), enforcing age restrictions for #Palestinian #Muslim access to #AlAqsa. Tensions rising. pic.twitter.com/8anaxciXIk
— Robert O. Smith (@robert_o_smith) July 28, 2017
Earlier, police barred men under the age of 50 from entering the Temple Mount for prayers today, saying they had received information extremists were planning violent protests in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has set up mobile clinics in East Jerusalem in preparation for potentially violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces after this afternoon’s prayers at the Temple Mount.
Large numbers of Israeli security forces are deployed throughout the capital, and police earlier barred men under the age of 50 from entering the Temple Mount for Friday prayers over concerns of violence protests.
הכנות "הסהר האדום" לקראת תפילות יום השישי והמהומות הצפויות בירושלים @OrHeller pic.twitter.com/YZw1AA1Mra
— חדשות 10 (@news10) July 28, 2017
Heavy clashes in the capital and West Bank last weekend left five Palestinians dead and saw a Palestinian terrorist stab to death three Israelis at their Shabbat meal in a West Bank settlement.
Joint (Arab) List Knesset member Hanin Zoabi is barred from entering the Temple Mount just ahead of afternoon prayers at the holy site.
Video footage of the incident shows the MK yelling to the border police officers on duty that “one day we’ll end up inside Jerusalem, and you’ll be outside.”
תיעוד: ח"כ זועבי התעמתה עם שוטרים בכניסה להר הבית • @akivanovick עם התיעוד המלא >> https://t.co/fCK2Bp4vV6 pic.twitter.com/00oT0HPIRT
— חדשות 10 (@news10) July 28, 2017
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Jewish and Muslim lawmakers off the Temple Mount a year and half ago, after the outbreak in October 2015 of a wave of Palestinian violence and terror attacks centered around claims that Israel was attempting to take control of the compound.
Hundreds of mostly young Palestinian men are gathered behind a police barricade at Salah-a-Din Street in East Jerusalem near the Old City.
Most of the people are wearing hats that read, “I am Muslim and I would bleed for Al-Aqsa,” while the crowd chants “In blood we will redeem Al-Aqsa.”
There are as yet no incidents of violence.
Most of the people are wearing hats that read: "I am Muslim and I would bleed for Al-Aqsa" pic.twitter.com/LUYLlN9Rge
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) July 28, 2017
— Judah Ari Gross
Thousands of Muslim worshipers banned from entering the Temple Mount for this afternoon’s prayers hold them publicly around Jerusalem under heavy guard by Israeli security forces.
Worshipers can be seen praying outside the Old City gates, major streets in East Jerusalem and several checkpoints throughout the city.
مئات المصلين يتوافدون لأداء صلاة الجمعة في منطقة باب الخليل بالقدس المحتلة.#جمعة_الثبات pic.twitter.com/7LHn7N1ltH
— Pal.Info.Center (@PalinfoAr) July 28, 2017
Prayers starting pic.twitter.com/crI5pvPUQX
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) July 28, 2017
A Palestinian man who was injured in clashes earlier this week in Jerusalem has died, the hospital says.
Dr. Ahmad Betawi, head of a West Bank hospital, says 26-year-old Mohammed Kanan sustained a head injury when he was struck Monday by a live bullet outside Jerusalem.
At least five other Palestinians have died in the past week in violent clashes with Israeli security forces amid protests over the Temple Mount.
Kanan is being buried this afternoon in East Jerusalem.
يا أم الشهيد نيالك يا ريت أمي بدالك..#شاهد: هتافات الشبان خلال تشييع جثمان الشهيد محمد كنعان في بلدة حزما شمال شرق القدس المحتلة.
Posted by المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام on Friday, 28 July 2017
— AP contributed
A tense standoff is developing between hundreds of Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz.
Tensions flare after kids throw water bottles at police patrolling the neighborhood, and officers respond by firing a stun grenade into the crowd.
— Judah Ari Gross
Low-level clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces break out near Rachel’s Tomb, close to the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Reports in Palestinian media say Israel is using rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowd of nearly 200. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 10 people are injured.
Other clashes are reported in the West Bank cities of Nablus, Qalqilya and Hebron.
The IDF says it is investigating a possible attempted stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank.
The alleged attacker was “neutralized” at the scene, according to Hebrew-language media reports.
No other injuries are reported.
A Palestinian man attempted to stab IDF soldiers at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank, and was shot dead, the army says.
The man ran towards the soldiers with a knife drawn before being shot, according to an IDF statement.
No Israeli soldiers were injured in the incident.
Dozens of worshipers stage an anti-Israel rally in Iran over stepped-up security measures by Israeli forces at the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem.
Chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” demonstrators in Tehran this afternoon are protesting Israel’s security measures at the site where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Earlier, Israeli police announced that men under the age of 50 will be barred from the shrine, which has been at the center of recent tensions.
— AP
Hundreds of Jordanians hold a protest this afternoon near the Israeli embassy in Amman, calling on the government to shut it down, expel the ambassador and cancel the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
Emerging from a mosque hundreds of meters (yards) away from the embassy, the protesters chant “Death to Israel” and “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian soil”, an AFP correspondent says.
The protest was another sign of growing tensions between the two countries.
Earlier this week, a security guard at the Israeli Embassy shot and killed two Jordanians, including a 16-year-old who authorities said attacked him with a screw driver.
The guard returned to Israel to praise from Israel’s prime minister, prompting unprecedented criticism from Jordan’s king who said Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions were “provocative.”
— Agencies
Authorities say this afternoon’s prayers at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount have ended peacefully.
Firas Dibs, an official from the Jordanian religious body that administers the holy site, says tens of thousands attended Friday prayers.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says prayers ended without incident. Police were out in force in anticipation of mass demonstrations.
Muslims only returned to the site yesterday after about two weeks of praying in the streets nearby to protest new Israeli security measures placed at the site in the wake of the July 14 terror attack that killed two police officers.
Security measures continue in Jerusalem throughout the day. Thousands of Moslems prayed on the Temple Mount. No incidents occurred. pic.twitter.com/oLOb4OQwuI
— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) July 28, 2017
— AP
The Palestinian Red Crescent says its medics have treated 25 people for injuries sustained in altercations with Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem and the West Bank this afternoon.
According to the organization, the two dozen or so Palestinians were injured in low-level clashes in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarem, Ramallah and the adjacent Qalandiya refugee camp. Several injuries were reported from the clashes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz as well.
An IDF medic was lightly injured after a rock struck his head during the clashes in Qalandiya, according to Hebrew-language media reports.
A Palestinian was killed in clashes with the Israeli army along the Gaza Strip border this afternoon, according to reports in Palestinian media.
16-year-old Abdel Rahman Abu Hamaisa was shot dead by IDF fire east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Strip, the reports say, citing the Gaza Health Ministry.
German police say one person died after a man with a knife attacked several people at a supermarket in Hamburg.
Police in the northern port city report that the attacker was arrested.
They say on Twitter that the motive for the incident Friday in Hamburg’s Barmbek district wasn’t immediately clear.
