16 arrested for incitement, pro-Hamas chants at Ramadan Al Aqsa prayers

Muslim worshipers attend morning prayers of the holy month of Ramadan, at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem's Old City, April 6, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)
Muslim worshipers attend morning prayers of the holy month of Ramadan, at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem's Old City, April 6, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

Police arrested 16 people at dawn prayers at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

One person was arrested for shooting fireworks at police, while the others were held for incitement to violence and terrorism after they began chanting in support of Hamas, police say.

In one instance police used a drone to drop teargas on a group.

The worshippers were taking part in ‘Leilat al-Qadr’ prayers, toward the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Police say most of those arrested were youths from East Jerusalem and northern Israel. One person was from the West Bank city of Nablus.

Ramadan prayers this year have been largely peaceful despite high tensions over the war in Gaza.

The site is the holiest place in Judaism, where two biblical Temples once stood, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third-holiest shrine in Islam, making the site a perennial flashpoint of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

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