Palestinian Muslim worshippers pray during Laylat al-Qadr,or the night of destiny,in the holy fasting month of Ramadan,in front of the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.Credit:AP
“What the Israeli police and special forces are doing,from violations against the mosque to attacks on worshippers,is barbaric (behaviour) that is rejected and condemned,” the government said in a statement.
The worsening violence in the city has prompted US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to tell his Israeli counterpart Meir Ben-Shabbat that the Biden administration has “serious concerns,” including “violent confrontations at the Haram al-Sharif/ Temple Mount during the last days of Ramadan,” according to a readout from National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne.
He also repeated US concerns about the evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood outside the Old City.
The United Nations Security Council will discuss rising tensions in East Jerusalem in a private session on Monday.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was safeguarding the right of worship and would not toleraterioting in the compound that houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.
Frictions have mounted in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank,with nightly clashes in occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah - a neighbourhood where several Palestinian families face eviction.