Temple Mount: Entrance reopened to worshipers after hundreds rioted

Two Palestinians were arrested by Israel Police forces on Friday morning after hundreds began rioting as the morning Fajr prayers wrapped up on the Temple Mount.

The total number of worshipers that visited the Mount overnight Thursday is unclear, but in the past few days, it has numbered in the tens of thousands. The rioters in the crowd threw stones and fireworks toward worshipers at the Western Wall below where Jewish worshipers traditionally go to pray.

One of the rioters was arrested for throwing stones and the second was arrested for incitement.

Israel Police forces entered the area and are using crowd dispersal methods to stop the violence. The Red Crescent has updated that 42 Palestinians have been injured so far from tear gas and rubber bullets, according to Palestinian reports.

The entrance to the Temple Mount has been reopened after being closed for the past two hours by Israeli security forces.

Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh speaks during a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2021. (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)Police estimated that one of the stones thrown did reach the Western Wall Plaza.

“All violence should be condemned, but even more so in a holy site. This is not what prayer looks like. This is certainly not what faith in God looks like – harming and throwing stones on innocent worshippers,” said Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites.

Tensions have been high on the Temple Mount over the past few weeks since the beginning of Ramadan, with calls for incitement and clashes occurring as thousands arrived at the site to pray.

The clashes have reached diplomatic realms as relations intensified between Israel and Jordan, with Israel saying yesterday that it will not hold talks with Jordan on the status quo of the Temple Mount in the coming weeks after the Jordanian prime minister praised the Palestinians who physically attacked Israelis.

Israel does not plan to hold discussions about the Temple Mount with Jordan, a senior diplomatic source said, until a series of potential dates for Palestinian terrorist groups to incite violence in the coming weeks come to an end: the last Friday of Ramadan this week, Independence Day on May 5, Nakba Day on May 15, and Jerusalem Day on May 29.

Jordan had submitted a paper to the US calling for Israel to relinquish control of the holy site.

By a longstanding agreement, Jordan’s royal family is the custodian of al-Aqsa and exercises that role mostly through the Wakf. When Israel and Jordan made peace in 1994, Israel committed to “respect the present, special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem.”

Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.