JERUSALEM, 08 May, 2021 (TON): Israeli police attacked Muslim worshippers late on Friday inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem's Old City. 

At least 205 Palestinians and 17 officers were injured in the night-time clashes at Islam’s third-holiest site and around East Jerusalem, Palestinian medics and Israeli police said, as thousands of Palestinians faced off with several hundred Israeli police in riot gear. 

Israeli police fired rubber-coated metal bullets and stun grenades towards rock-hurling Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque as anger grows over the potential eviction of Palestinians from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem. 

An Al-Aqsa official appealed for calm on the compound through the mosque’s loudspeakers. “Police must immediately stop firing stun grenades at worshippers, and the youth must calm down and be quiet.” 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he “held [Israel] responsible for the dangerous developments and sinful attacks taking place in the holy city”, and called on the UN Security Council to hold an urgent session on the issue. 

The intervention by Israeli police who also attacked young Palestinians in front of the Damascus and Es-Sahire gates of the Old City, caused panic among women and children. 

Police allow for controlled passage through the gates of the Old City. 

They continued their intervention at regular intervals against the Muslims in the mosque, while worshippers continued to perform Tarawih, special nightly prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.