For second night, violence resumes at Jerusalem holy site
LA TimesIsraeli police carry off a Palestinian from the Al Aqsa Mosque compound following a raid of the site in Jerusalem’s Old City. Violence resumed for a second straight night in Jerusalem on Wednesday when Palestinian worshipers barricaded themselves inside Al Aqsa Mosque at the Old City’s sensitive compound and Israeli police used force to take dozens of worshipers out. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, expressed “outrage and condemnation” at the attack, telling reporters at U.N. headquarters: “It is the right of the Palestinian Muslim worshipers to exercise their religious duties and prayers in this holy month of Ramadan, and in any other time in this holy Aqsa Mosque.” Crowds of Palestinians gathered around a police station in Jerusalem on Wednesday, waiting anxiously for their loved ones to trickle out of detention. But he said that if the rocket fire persisted, “we will respond very aggressively.” The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called for Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel to gather around Al Aqsa Mosque and confront Israeli forces.