The Palestinian Red Crescent said 31 people were injured Friday, including 14 who were taken to hospitals, when violence erupted on a Jerusalem compound that is considered sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
Officials say after Palestinians began throwing rocks at the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli police intervened with rubber bullets and stun grenades. The Associated Press reports the police were in “full riot gear.”
The location is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Visits to the site by Jewish groups were halted Friday, as they usually are, for the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Jews have been prohibited from praying at the site, but that prohibition has not been upheld in recent years.
This year, the Muslim holiday of Ramadan also coincided with the Jewish Passover and several Christian holy days, resulting in thousands of people of different faiths making pilgrimages to the site.
A recent uptick in violence in Jerusalem has raised fears of a repeat of last year’s 11 days of violence between Hammas and Israel.
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