Israel Reopens Al-Aqsa Mosque But Tensions Still High

Israel on Wednesday lifted restrictions on Al-Aqsa Mosque that have sparked three weeks of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces. 



The removal of a ban on men under 50 entering the mosque, the third holiest in Islam, came during a fourth consecutive day of heavy clashes. 



For the first time, the clashes spread to Palestinian-majority Jaffa, adjacent to Israeli capital Tel Aviv, where police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said 200 youth clashed with police on Tuesday night after a protest against the Al-Aqsa restrictions was prevented. 



Red Crescent officials said 90 Palestinians were injured in the occupied West Bank during Tuesday's clashes, with many of them coming at the Qalandiya checkpoint, which separates East Jerusalem from the center of the Palestinian Authority administration in Ramallah. 



After a meeting of his executive committee on Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas saidthat he did not want a "military confrontation" with Israel and had told Palestinian security services and supporters of his Fatah party to avoid further violence. 



Clashes intensified Monday after two Palestinian youths, aged 13 and 18, were shot dead by Israeli troops on Sunday. 



The Israeli military said Tuesday that the shooting of 13-year-old Abd al-Raham Shadi was a mistake but a statement from the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, where he lived, criticized the Israeli policy of using live fire against stone-throwing protesters. 



The statement claimed the boy had been returning from school and was standing more than 100 meters away from the security forces, with a group of other children, when he was shot in the chest. 



"There can be no reasonable contention that ABD al-Raham posed any form of threat to Israeli soldiers, and his death represents the latest tragedy in an endless record of unlawful Palestinian bloodshed at the hands of the Israeli occupying power," said the statement. 



Weeks of clashes around Al-Aqsa spread on Thursday with the killing of an Israeli settler couple near the West Bank city of Nablus, which was followed by reprisal attacks on Palestinian property and land. - Filistin