Jerusalem, March 16: Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with police in Israeli-occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem Tuesday amid heightened tensions in the Holy City where Israel vowed to expand illegal Jewish settlements.
As the unrest rocked Jerusalem, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell delayed a visit to the region amid the most severe diplomatic row in decades between Israel and the United States, which has been struggling to revive peace talks.
Israeli forces fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at protesters who hurled rocks at security forces in the Shuafat refugee camp. The Palestinians dispersed after security forces moved in.
Similar clashes broke out in other parts of Palestinian East Jerusalem, which Israel illegally occupied in 1967 after the Six Day War it waged against its neighbours.
Israeli forces said two officers were injured, but did not mention Palestinian casualties. Several people were arrested, said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
A heavy security presence was evident around the Old City, and Israeli forces said they deployed 3,000 officers in Jerusalem.
Israel’s announcement last week of plans to build 1,600 new illegal units for mainly radical Jewish settlers in Palestinian East Jerusalem infuriated not only the Palestinians, but also the US administration which had sent Vice President Joe Biden to the region to promote new Middle East peace talks.
Mitchell on Tuesday postponed a visit to region, the Israeli president’s office said, without giving further details.
Earlier this month, the Palestinians reluctantly agreed to hold indirect talks with the Israelis after a 14-month hiatus in negotiations following Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, but the outlook for a resumption soon of the peace process looks bleak.
The reopening of a twice-destroyed synagogue in occupied Jerusalem’s walled Old City on Monday further fuelled tensions.
Many Palestinians view Israeli projects near the Al-Aqsa mosque compound — Islam’s third holiest site — as an attempt to gradually destroy it and replace it with a Jewish site.
Rival Palestinian factions united in condemning the high-security opening of the synagogue.
“This is no mere synagogue,” said Hatem Abdel Qader, the official in charge of Jerusalem affairs for Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
“This synagogue will be a prelude to violence and religious fanaticism and extremism, and this is not limited to Jewish extremists but includes members of the Israeli government,” he added.
The democratically elected Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip declared Tuesday a “day of rage and alarm” over the opening of the synagogue in the Old City, calling on Arabs and Muslims to “come to the aid of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa.”
The United States took strong exception to the Palestinian statements, saying “such incitement” would heighten tensions.
Palestinians were all the more irate since Israeli police have maintained restrictions on access to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound since Friday.
Israel has also sealed off the occupied West Bank to stop Palestinian protests.
—Agencies