West Bank clashes after Israel allows restricted access to Al Aqsa

Israel deploys heavy security, allows only men under 50 to enter compound a day after shooting sparked fierce protests in Jerusalem.

Israeli policemen prevent a Palestinian man under the age of 50 from entering the Al Aqsa mosque compound for Friday prayers on October 31, 2014. Gali Tibbon / AFP

JERUSALEM // Clashes erupted in the West Bank after midday prayers on Friday while security forces deployed around Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque, which had been shut temporarily following the killing of a Palestinian by police.

Al Aqsa, in Jerusalem’s Old City, and adjacent neighbourhoods have seen months of violence, and the mosque compound has been a rallying point for Palestinian resistance to perceived Jewish attempts to take control of it.

Jerusalem was relatively calm a day after youths clashed with police following the shooting of Mutaz Hijazi, a Palestinian suspected of trying to murder a hardline Jewish rabbi, Yehuda Glick, linked to the tensions at Al Aqsa.

The clashes prompted Israel to order a rare closure of the mosque compound, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, but the area reopened on Friday.

Fearing unrest after Hijazi’s killing, hundreds of additional police were deployed around the Al Aqsa mosque, and entry was restricted to Muslim men over 50.

Prayers were more sparsely attended than usual but held without incident.

Azzam Al Khatib, head of the Islamic Waqf body which oversees Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites, gave a sharp sermon at Al Aqsa, calling Thursday a “black day” and a “catastrophe”.

Shortly afterwards, a handful of Palestinian youths outside the Old City threw stones at police, who quickly dispersed them.

In the West Bank about 300 Palestinians threw stones at Israeli security forces at the Qalandiya checkpoint just north of Jerusalem.

The Israelis responded with live fire and rubber bullets and wounded around a dozen people, Palestinian security sources and medics said.

Jerusalem’s Old City was teeming with additional police, including many in riot gear, after an Israeli clampdown on the compound.

The closure was the first for decades and prompted a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to condemn the move as an Israeli “declaration of war”.

The resident imam at Mr Abbas’s headquarters in Ramallah echoed the president’s words, saying the closure had been a “declaration of war ... to Muslims across the world” and calling for people to “defend” Al Aqsa.

Jerusalem has been shaken by months of unrest sparked by the murder of a Palestinian teenager in July in revenge for the killings of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank.

A 50-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip intensified protests and clashes in Jerusalem.

A controversial visit to Al Aqsa in 2000 by Ariel Sharon, who later became Israel’s prime minister, sparked the second deadly Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

Police, some in riot gear, manned a series of checkpoints leading from the Old City’s outer gates all the way to the mosque compound.

They checked identity papers of people passing between the barricades, both those on their way to pray and those who worked nearby.

Zuheir Dana, 67, said he was unable to get from his shop to his home.

“I wanted just to get home, which is about 50 metres away from the Al Aqsa compound, but police didn’t let me through,” he said.

“It’s been bad every day here since Ramadan,” he added.

Markets in the Old City, normally bustling on a Friday morning, were nearly deserted due to the security measures.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, thousands turned out at the call of militant organisations Hamas and Islamic Jihad to honour Hijazi, whom Islamic Jihad claimed as one of its members.

Demonstrators burned Israeli flags and held up posters of Hijazi.

Fathi Hamad, a leader of the Hamas movement, said at Friday prayers in Gaza City that Israel would “not win – we will resist”.

He urged Arabs in Jerusalem to “stay strong. We are with you to wage the battle of Al Aqsa!”

Israeli police said Hijazi’s funeral late on Thursday had passed off without incident.

The hospital treating Mr Glick said his condition was slightly improved on Friday but that his life was still in danger.

* Agence France-Presse