Clashes erupted for the second consecutive night between Palestinians and Israeli occupation police at the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Sunday night.
At least 19 Palestinians were injured and 10 others were arrested, Palestinian Red Crescent and occupation police said, according to Palestinian and Israeli media.
Videos emerging from the occupied Al-Quds showed Palestinians throwing objects at armed Israeli policemen at the Damascus Gate of holy Al-Aqsa compound.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visited the Damascus Gate for “a situation evaluation” with occupation police, Israeli media reported, adding that he was accompanied by deputy public security minister Yoav Segalovitz, Economy Minister Orna Barbivai and Foreign Ministry director-general Alon Ushpiz.
“This is a difficult, tense period, but we have a police [force] that can be relied on to get us through this complex period,” Lapid said as quoted by The Times of Israel.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority issued statements criticizing Lapid’s tour as a provocative one.
Hamas called Lapid’s visit a “dangerous escalation and provocation.”
“We and our people have pledged to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa by force and by all means at our disposal,” the Resistance group added.
For its part, PA Foreign Ministry “condemns in the strongest terms the provocative incursion by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in the Bab Al-Amoud [Damascus Gate] area in occupied Al-Quds, and strongly condemns the promises he made to Jewish extremists to deploy more occupation forces and police in Jerusalem under the pretext of providing protection for them during the Jewish holidays,” the ministry wrote in a statement on its website Sunday night.
Source: Al-Manar English Website
