ISRAEL’S air force bombed the Gaza Strip and Palestinian fighters fired across the border in the early hours today as clashes erupted again at the al-Aqsa mosque.

Israeli police attacked Palestinians who had sealed themselves inside the mosque, hurling stun grenades and firing rubber-coated bullets, according to an official from the Waqf, which administers the holy site.

Police said they were hit by “rocks and firecrackers” and had responded with “riot dispersal means.”

The clashes followed a march by hundreds of Israeli extremists through Palestinian areas of the Old City in Jerusalem yesterday, a demonstration seen as a deliberate provocation of Arab residents.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 20 people were injured, one critically.
Similar clashes have taken place throughout the week, while fiercer ones broke out at the site earlier this month, wounding more than 150 Palestinians and three police officers.

Two rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel last night, with Israeli war planes bombing the central Gaza strip early this morning. 

The military later said its planes attacked another Hamas compound after an anti-aircraft missile was fired from Gaza. It said the missile failed to hit its target and no injuries or damage were reported.

The escalating violence has echoes of that last year, when Israeli attacks on Palestinians at al-Aqsa were followed by rocket fire from Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip, and a devastating Israeli bombardment of Gaza that lasted 11 days and killed 243 Palestinians, including entire families. Twelve Israelis were also killed in the conflict.

Jordan called an emergency meeting of the Arab Ministerial Committee on al-Quds (Jerusalem) today to discuss the “illegal Israeli policies and measures” in the city. 

It condemned the Israeli actions, called them provocative and called on Israel to ensure that only Muslims worship at the site in accordance with existing agreements.

The al-Aqsa mosque sits in what Muslims term the Noble Sanctuary, the religion’s third holiest site, which is also the holiest site in Judaism, known as Temple Mount because of the temples built there in antiquity.