J'lem remains calm after Temple Mount clashes

Jerusalem's Old City remained calm yesterday, a day after several people were wounded and arrested in East Jerusalem clashes that started at the Temple Mount.

Police sources said they had no prior knowledge about unrest in the eastern part of the city, and that there had been no orders to send more officers to the area.

Police arrested 11 people suspected of disrupting public order. Seventeen police officers were wounded in the clashes. Ten of them required medical treatment at hospitals; the others were treated at the site.

Fifteen rioters were also wounded. All sustained minor injuries.

The main clash began when a group of tourists entered the Temple Mount compound accompanied by a police force. Some 150 Muslim worshipers started gathering around them and yelling at them, and some began throwing stones at the group.

The police officers fired stun grenades in response, in an attempt to gain control.

The atmosphere began to calm gradually, as police officers took up positions in the area and as some worshipers persuaded the rioters to back off.

Police said the visitors were French tourists, but the Palestinians insisted they were Jewish extremists, part of a group of some 200 religious Jews who had assembled earlier outside the gates to the compound. The Jews never managed to get into the complex, because several hundred Palestinians began a loud protest.

Shops throughout the Muslim quarter of the Old City reopened after staging a partial strike following the violence.

The compound is referred to as the Temple Mount by Jews and Al-Haram Al-Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary) by Muslims. It is considered the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam.

Several stone throwing incidents were recorded in the alleys of the Old City after the riot. There were no reports of injuries or damage. Many police officers were deployed in the area, and Police Commissioner David Cohen came to the Temple Mount, where he was debriefed by senior commanders.

The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of deliberately raising tensions amid a U.S.-led push to relaunch the stalled peace process, while the Arab League in Cairo expressed "extreme anger" and Jordan summoned the Israeli ambassador. Palestinian leaders warned Israel after the incidents on Sunday not to stoke tension in Jerusalem in the hope of thwarting peace talks.

"At a time when [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama is trying to bridge the divide between Palestinians and Israelis, and to get negotiations back on track, Israel is deliberately escalating tensions in Jerusalem," chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat said Sunday evening.

"We've seen this before, and we know what the consequences are," the Palestinian minister added, in a statement that recalled the visit of then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the site in 2000, sparking the second intifada.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said, "East Jerusalem is a red line that should not be compromised," condemning the "introduction of radical Jewish groups" into the mosque.

Hamas branded the clash at the Temple Mount a "Zionist crime" and a provocation.

"The Israeli occupation is not interested in calm," the Palestinian news agency Ma'an quoted Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, as saying. The news agency said Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called for Palestinians to rise up against Israel to retaliate for the incident.

Other Islamists in Gaza were also quoted as calling for an uprising and condemning Israel. Despite the clashes, Jewish worshipers continued to pray at the Western Wall - situated below the Temple Mount - in the lead-up to Yom Kippur.

Barak Ravid contributed to this report.