Clashes in Al Aqsa

At the al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on Wednesday, there were violent confrontations between Israeli police and Palestinian worshippers. In the early morning, dozens of Israeli police forced Palestinians out of the mosque by gunpoint, which initiated clashes between the two groups in the courtyard opposite al-Aqsa. Fifteen Palestinians were injured when Israeli police fired tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades.

The clashes intensified when Uri Ariel, the Israeli Minister of Housing, with a group of right-wing Israelis came into the al-Aqsa compound.

On Twitter, an Israeli police spokesperson said, "Police units entered the Temple Mount area after blocks & stones were thrown at officers at mugrabim gate."

Al-Aqsa mosque is the third most sacred mosque in Islam. It is also sacred in Judaism because it is stands above of the sites of the First and Second Temple. Israel has an agreement with the Islamic trust that manages it that non-Muslim prayers in the mosque. The al-Aqsa compound was the location of the beginning of the second Intifada, in which in the fall of 2000, then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon with members of the right-wing Israeli Likud party and armed guards stormed onto the site.