Israeli police enter Al-Aqsa mosque, more settlement homes planned

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Israeli officers entered Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday and made several arrests in a rare raid on the third-holiest shrine in Islam.

Police said the troopers were sent to Al-Aqsa, an emblem of Palestinians' statehood hopes and a frequent catalyst of their conflict with Israel, in pursuit of youths who had lobbed rocks and fireworks during clashes with forces outside.

There was no immediate word of any violence in the mosque, whose older male worshipers said they had been allowed to exit after being searched.

Witnesses later saw around 20 younger men detained by police, and said mosque prayers later resumed.

Police put the number of arrests at 24, and said four of its officers were injured in the melee.

Palestinian protesters throw stones toward Israeli forces during a demonstration along the border between Israel and the Gaza strip, July 27, 2018. /VCG Photo

The raid came as medics in Gaza said Israeli army gunfire killed two people – including a 14-year-old boy – during a weekly border protest.

The military said troops opened fire to hold off thousands of Palestinians, some of whom threw rocks and rolled burning tires at the border fence in attempts to sabotage it.

This brings to 154 the Palestinian death toll during demonstrations launched on March 30 to demand rights to land lost to Israel in the 1948 war of its founding.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced on Friday that Israel would build hundreds of new settler homes in the occupied West Bank.

"The best answer to terrorism is the expansion of settlements," he wrote on Twitter, announcing 400 new housing units in the Adam settlement, north of Jerusalem.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman visits the southern Kibbutz of Or HaNer, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, July 27, 2018. /VCG Photo

This came a day after a Palestinian stabbed three Israelis, one fatally, in that settlement.

Attacks against Israelis in the West Bank are supported by many Palestinians as pushing back against settlement growth. Israel meanwhile rejects the view that settlement expansion is one of the greatest obstacles to peace with the Palestinians.

Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank is considered illegal by the international community.

(Top picture: Israeli forces launch a tear gas canister to disperse worshipers during a protest at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, July 27, 2018. /VCG Photo )

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters