At Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, Israeli police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at rock-throwing Palestinian youth amid mounting outrage over the potential eviction of Palestinians from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers.
According to Palestinian medics and Israeli police, at least 178 Palestinians and six policemen were wounded in the nighttime clashes at Islam's third holiest site and in the surrounding area of East Jerusalem, as thousands of Palestinians clashed with hundreds of Israeli police in riot gear.
During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, tensions have risen in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, with nightly clashes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood where a long-running legal case threatens to expel multiple Palestinian families.
The United States and the United Nations issued calls for calm and restraint on Friday, while the European Union and Jordan expressed concern about the evictions.
Earlier on Friday, tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to the hilltop complex surrounding the mosque for prayers. Many people remained to condemn the evictions in Jerusalem, the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, after the evening meal that breaks the Ramadan fast, clashes erupted at Al-Aqsa, with smaller scuffles occurring near Sheikh Jarrah, which is located near the Old City's popular Damascus Gate.
Several hundred demonstrators gathered near the homes of families facing eviction were dispersed by police using water cannon mounted on armored vehicles.
"If we don't stand with this group of people here, (evictions) will come to my home, her house, his house, and any Palestinian who lives here," said Bashar Mahmoud, a 23-year-old protester from Issawiya, a nearby Palestinian neighborhood.
'BREATHE AND BE STILL
Via the mosque's loudspeakers, an Aqsa official pleaded for calm on the compound. "Police must stop shooting stun grenades at worshipers immediately, and the youth must calm down and be silent!"
On Monday, Israel's Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the Sheikh Jarrah evictions, which falls on Jerusalem Day, Israel's annual commemoration of the 1967 Middle East war's capture of East Jerusalem.
After being sprayed with rubber-coated metal bullets, 88 Palestinians were taken to hospital, according to the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance service.
According to the Red Crescent, one of the wounded lost an eye, two had critical head wounds, and two had their jaws broken. The rest of the injuries were minor, according to the study.
The occupied West Bank has also seen a rise in violence, with two Palestinian gunmen killed and a third seriously wounded on Friday after opening fire on an Israeli base, according to police. Following the incident, Israel's military announced that it would send more fighting forces to the West Bank.
