Israel-Palestine live: Police raid Al-Aqsa for a second night

By Dalia Hatuqa, Zaheena Rasheed and Allison Griner

• Israeli police have raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for a second consecutive night, firing stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian worshippers.
• Videos from the site show armed troops forcibly emptying the mosque from worshippers who had gathered there for Ramadan prayers.
• Israeli settlers enter Al-Aqsa mosque under police protection
• Dozens of Israeli settlers entered the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of the Israeli police on Thursday morning. Earlier, Israeli police prevented Palestinian worshippers from entering the mosque for Fajr prayer.
• Hundreds of Palestinians performed Fajr prayer in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, local media reported.
• Israeli police attack Palestinians in Al-Aqsa Mosque again
• More rockets launched from Gaza: Report
• Palestinian groups in Gaza launched several rockets from the blockaded enclave into Israel early on Thursday morning, the Times of Israel reported.
• Citing the Israeli military, the newspaper said two of the rockets were fired in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea and five towards Israel.
• The launches set off sirens in southern Israel, it added.
• Why are Palestinians fearful about Al-Aqsa’s future?
• The Al-Aqsa compound sits on a plateau in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by most in the international community.
• For Muslims, the compound hosts Islam’s third-holiest site, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock, a seventh-century structure believed to be where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
• The compound is also where Jews believe the Biblical Jewish temples once stood and is known to them as Temple Mount.
• Palestinians see Al-Aqsa as one of the few national symbols over which they retain some element of control. They are, however, fearful of a slow encroachment by Jewish groups akin to what happened at the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron, where half of the mosque was turned into a synagogue after 1967.
• Palestinians are also worried about far-right Israeli movements that want to demolish the Islamic structures in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and build a Jewish temple there.
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• 3h ago (03:26 GMT)Malaysia condemns Al-Aqsa raids in ‘strongest terms’Malaysia has condemned the latest raids at Al-Aqsa in the “strongest terms” calling on the international community to hold Israel accountable.“The actions by the Israeli forces were unlawful, contemptuous and grossly violating the human rights of the Palestinians and the sanctity of the third holiest shrine in Islam,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement from Putrajaya, the country’s administrative capital, on Thursday.
• UN Security Council to discuss Al-Aqsa tensions
• The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session on Thursday to discuss the violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to diplomats.
• The closed-door meeting was called at the request of the United Arab Emirates and China, diplomats told the Reuters news agency.
• Violence erupts across occupied West Bank
• Dozens of Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank after the Al-Aqsa Mosque was raided for the second night in a row, according to the Wafa news agency.
• At least 12 people were wounded when Israeli forces hurled canisters with poisonous gas in Nablus, the agency said, while another was hit by live ammunition in the town of Beit Ummar near the northern city of Hebron.
• Dozens of people in Beit Ummar also reported suffocating from poisonous gas, Wafa reported.
• The agency also reported violence near the cities of Jenin and Bethlehem.
• Why is Al-Aqsa so significant?
• The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem is one of the holiest sites in the world and one of the most contested.
• Why is it so significant? What’s been changing? And why is it emblematic of the wider Palestinian struggle?
• Canada can ‘no longer stand on the sidelines’: NDP
• Canada’s New Democratic Party is urging the government to take action after the latest Al-Aqsa raids saying the country can “no longer stand on the sidelines”.
• Party leader Jagmeet Singh described the violence of the police raids as “terrifying, disturbing and brutal” and said the NDP would move a motion in parliament to discuss a Canadian response.
• “Whether people are fasting for Ramadan or celebrating freedom from oppression in Passover, they should be guaranteed the right to peaceful worship,” fellow NDP legislator Blake Desjarlais said in a statement shared
• Tensions spread, teenager reportedly shot
• Tensions following the latest Al-Aqsa raid have spilt over into other parts of occupied East Jerusalem.
• A teenage boy, 14, has reportedly been shot in the arm with live ammunition after an encounter with Israeli forces.
• Protesters in Turkey demonstrate against Al-Aqsa raidsDemonstrators outside the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, held a protest in support of Palestinian worshippers who were forcibly removed from the Al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday.They waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans denouncing the violence, which took place as Israeli police raided the holy site for a second time.Demonstrators in Istanbul protest an Israeli police raid of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on April 5 [Khalil Hamra]A girl in Istanbul waves two Palestinian flags in support of the worshippers removed from the Al-Aqsa mosque [Khalil Hamra]
• 7h ago (22:52 GMT)Photos capture Israeli police near Al-Aqsa compoundPhotos from the news agency Reuters show Israeli border police positioned near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on April 5, the day a raid was carried out on the mosque, removing an estimated 350 worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan.A woman passes Israeli border police near the Al-Aqsa compound on April 5 [Ammar Awad]Israeli border police take positions near the Al-Aqsa compound on April 5 [Ammar Awad]
• 8h ago (22:18 GMT)Israel has ‘no right whatsoever’ to interrupt prayer: Palestinian envoy to UNRiyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, condemned Israeli action at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in a press conference on Wednesday, saying it is the “exclusive right of the Palestinian Muslims” to practise their religious traditions there.“It is the right of the Palestinian Muslim worshippers to exercise their religious duties and prayers in this holy month of Ramadan and in any other time in this holy Aqsa Mosque,” Mansour said.“The Israeli occupying authority has no right whatsoever to tell people when to pray and when not to pray.”8h ago (21:37 GMT)Arab League holds emergency meeting, condemns Israeli actionThe Arab League – a regional organisation of 22 member countries – is holding an emergency meeting on the raids at Al-Aqsa Mosque.Hossam Zaki, the league’s assistant secretary general, told Al Jazeera: “We lay the blame totally and squarely on the Israeli government.”“We are going to work, politically and diplomatically, to expose what Israel has been doing,” he continued.“It’s not that we need another excuse from the Israeli occupation forces to storm in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They never run out of excuses. They always tell you that there will be youth barricading, amassing guns and so on. We’ve heard it so many times. It is almost irrelevant at this point. This is a government that is bent on harming the Palestinian population.”9h ago (21:31 GMT)Raids on Al-Aqsa ‘a serious provocation’Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, called the latest violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque a “very serious provocation that will definitely lead to an escalation”.“And maybe that’s what the Israeli government wants,” he told Al Jazeera. “They want to distract attention from their internal divisions, from the demonstrations that are taking place inside Israel against this government, and they want to drag this whole region into an explosion.”Barghouti blamed the violence, in part, on the appointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir as Israel’s minister of national security: “This Israeli government is using religion for nationalist causes.”“This is unprecedented that the mosque would be attacked twice in the same day, people would be injured, elderly people would be attacked, children, women in the morning. And now preventing medical teams from reaching them,” he said.Advertisement9h ago (21:20 GMT)Not ‘surprise’ violence has broken out: AJ correspondentSpeaking about the lead-up to the violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday, Al Jazeera correspondent Natasha Ghoneim said: “What we saw happening today was not in any way a surprise for those of us who covered this issue extensively.”“On Tuesday, there were calls on social media by Hamas and others urging Palestinians to go to Al-Aqsa Mosque and, quote, ‘defend it from the occupiers’,” she explained.“The reason this call was going out was Wednesday was Passover for Jews and there was expected, during visiting hours for non-Muslims, to be a greater number perhaps of Jews visiting the Al-Aqsa compound.”These visits, she added, were a “very hot-button issue” for Palestinians.“The Jews that tend to go into the compound are nationalists. They possess very conservative ideology. They are prohibited from praying inside the compound. But we do know that that ban has been violated on numerous occasions and that, again, is a real provocation to not only Muslims but all Palestinians.”9h ago (20:55 GMT)Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa not confined to Ramadan: Palestinian journalistThe attacks on Al-Aqsa are part of systemic violence exercised by Israeli forces, and do not occur only during Ramadan, said Mariam Barghouti, the Palestine correspondent for the news website, Mondoweiss.“The attacks on Al-Aqsa [don’t] just happen in Ramadan,” she told Al Jazeera. “They have happened on a nearly daily basis in the past year – Palestinian worshippers [are constantly being] attacked.”“This comes less than 24 hours since Israeli forces invaded Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday in the evening.“The assault is extending outside the walls of the old city. This is showing escalation and a promise of more violence.”
• PA spokesman: Israeli raid into Al-Aqsa ‘slap to US efforts’ to establish calmNabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has said, “Israel’s raid into Al-Aqsa mosque, its assault on worshippers, is a slap to recent US efforts which tried to create calm and stability during the month of Ramadan.”Abu Rudeineh is referring to the summits held in the Egyptian and Jordanian towns of Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba respectively, where officials from the US, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan agreed on a series of steps to de-escalate violence in the occupied territories.
• 10h ago (20:29 GMT)Acts in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound a ‘red line’Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier condemned the Israeli police raid overnight on Wednesday, calling such acts in the mosque compound a “red line” for Turkey.“I condemn the vile acts against the first qibla of Muslims in the name of my country and people, and I call for the attacks to be halted as soon as possible,” Erdogan said.“The name of this is the politics of repression, the politics of blood, the politics of provocation. Turkey can never remain silent and unmoved in the face of these attacks. Putting a hand on Al-Aqsa Mosque and trampling on its sanctity is a red line for us.”Read more about how the world reacted to Israel’s attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque.
• 10h ago (20:28 GMT)Israeli police clear Al-Aqsa Mosque of worshippers: AJ correspondentIsraeli police have cleared Al-Aqsa mosque of worshippers using rubber-coated steel bullets and teargas.“The mosque has been cleared. There is no one any longer inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.Israeli authorities have claimed that some Palestinians “barricaded” themselves inside the mosque.Traditionally, during Ramadan, Muslims stay up all night at mosques in a process known as “i’tikaf”.Advertisement
• 10h ago (20:22 GMT)Six Palestinians injured, according to Palestinian Red CrescentThe Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said that at least six Palestinians have been injured by Israeli police who have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque.Israeli forces are using stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas, videos emerging from the site are showing.(Al Jazeera)
• 10h ago (20:14 GMT)Israeli police storm Al-Aqsa Mosque for second night in a rowArmed Israeli police stormed the prayer hall of Al-Aqsa Mosque, attacking Palestinian worshippers for the second night in a row.Videos from the holy site have begun to emerge, showing a scene reminiscent of the night earlier, when Israeli police armed with batons, tear gas grenades and smoke bombs, burst into the mosque and beat worshippers, including women.

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