More than 150 injured in clashes at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque
The TelegraphMore than 150 Palestinians were injured after clashes broke out with Israeli riot police inside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Friday, marking an alarming surge in violence following weeks of tensions in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Thousands of Palestinians had gathered to attend early morning prayers before dawn, on the second Friday of Ramadan, which sparked into an hours-long riot as crowds of worshippers pushed back against Israeli police forces. The Al-Aqsa compound - the most sensitive site in the generations-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict - sits atop the Old City plateau of East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, and is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as Temple Mount. Israeli police say they had been forced to enter the religious compound, a major Israeli-Palestinian flashpoint, to disperse the crowd and quell violence, following reports Palestinians had gathered rocks and barricades in anticipation of a possible fracas.