Two Palestinians have been reportedly shot and killed during clashes in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday amid large-scale clashes in the city over new Israeli security measures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Maan News Agency reports that the deaths come amid a large-scale demonstration across East Jerusalem on Friday to denounce new Israeli security measures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound following a deadly attack last week.
Israeli forces have violently suppressed the protest in East Jerusalem, as well as other solidarity marches in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. At least 113 Palestinians had been injured in East Jerusalem and the West Bank on Friday.
A Palestinian teenager was killed during clashes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amoud, medical sources told Ma’an, as witnesses said that the youth was shot by an Israeli settler. The youth was identified as 18-year-old Muhammad Mahmoud Sharaf from the neighborhood of Silwan. Witnesses said Sharaf was shot in the neck by an Israeli settler, and later succumbed to his wounds.
Meanwhile, another Palestinian, identified by medical sources as Muhammad Abu Ghanam, succumbed to his wounds in al-Makassed hospital after being shot by Israeli police forces during clashes in al-Tur.
Witnesses said that Israeli forces raided the hospital on Friday afternoon looking to detain Palestinians who were injured during the clashes.
The Waqf, the Islamic endowment administering Al-Aqsa, called earlier this week on all mosques in Jerusalem to be closed on Friday and for all Muslim worshipers in the city to head towards Al-Aqsa to denounce the installation of metal detectors, turnstiles, and additional security cameras in the compound after a shooting attack on July 14 left the assailants, three Palestinian citizens of Israel, and two Israeli border police officers killed.
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Israeli police also decided to prevent Palestinian men below the age of 50 to enter the Old City and Al-Aqsa.
Palestinians have seen the measures at Al-Aqsa as the latest example of Israeli authorities using Israeli-Palestinian violence and tensions as a means of furthering control over important sites in the occupied Palestinian territory and normalizing heightened measures by Israeli forces targeting Palestinians.
At least 3,000 members of Israeli forces were deployed across Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday morning, especially near the Al-Aqsa compound, as metal barricades were set up at the Lions’ Gate to the compound, where thousands of Palestinians have been gathering for the past week to pray, refusing to go through the security apparatus installed at Al-Aqsa following a deadly shooting a week earlier.
