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Over 20 Wounded in New Jerusalem Violence

17 April 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: Israeli security forces detain a Palestinian man during clashes with Palestinians in the old city of Jerusalem. (dpa)
17 April 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: Israeli security forces detain a Palestinian man during clashes with Palestinians in the old city of Jerusalem. (dpa)
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Over 20 Wounded in New Jerusalem Violence

17 April 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: Israeli security forces detain a Palestinian man during clashes with Palestinians in the old city of Jerusalem. (dpa)
17 April 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: Israeli security forces detain a Palestinian man during clashes with Palestinians in the old city of Jerusalem. (dpa)

More than 20 Palestinians and Israelis were wounded on Sunday in several incidents in and around Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, two days after major violence at the site.

The latest clashes take the number of wounded since Friday to more than 170, at a tense time when the Jewish Passover festival coincides with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

They also follow deadly violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank starting in late March, in which 36 people have been killed.

Early on Sunday morning, police said "hundreds" of Palestinian demonstrators inside the mosque compound started gathering piles of stones, shortly before the arrival of Jewish visitors.

Jews are allowed to visit but not to pray at the site, also known as Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam.

Israeli police said its forces had entered the compound in order to "remove" the demonstrators and "re-establish order".

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 19 Palestinians were wounded, including at least five who were hospitalized. It said some had been wounded with rubber-coated steel bullets.

'Free hand'
An AFP team near the entrance to the compound early Sunday morning saw Jewish worshippers leaving the site, barefoot for religious reasons, and protected by heavily armed police.

Outside the Old City, which lies in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, Palestinian youths threw rocks at passing buses, smashing their windows, resulting in seven people being treated for light wounds, Shaare Zedek hospital said.

The police said they had arrested 18 Palestinians, and Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev said Israel would "act strongly against anyone who dares to use terrorism against Israeli citizens."

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that the security forces "continue to receive a free hand... for any action that will provide security to the citizens of Israel", while stressing every effort should be made to allow members of all religions to worship in Jerusalem.

King Abdullah II of Jordan -- the kingdom serves as custodian of holy places in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by most of the international community -- on Sunday called on Israel to "stop all illegal and provocative measures" that drives "further aggravation".

Senior Palestinian official Hussein Al Sheikh said Sunday that "Israel's dangerous escalation in the Al-Aqsa compound ... is a blatant attack on our holy places", and called on the international community to intervene.

The chief of the Hamas movement, which controls the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, had earlier warned Israel that "Al-Aqsa is ours and ours alone".

"Our people have the right to access it and pray in it, and we will not bow down to (Israeli) repression and terror," Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement.

The United Nations has called for calm, a year after clashes in and around the mosque compound escalated into an 11-day war between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

Pope's Easter peace prayer
Weeks of mounting tensions saw two recent deadly attacks by Palestinians in or near the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, alongside mass arrests by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

A total of 14 people have been killed in attacks against Israel since March 22.

Twenty-two Palestinians have been killed over the same period, including assailants who targeted Israelis, according to an AFP tally.

On Friday morning, police clashed with Palestinians in the Al-Aqsa compound, including inside the Al-Aqsa mosque, drawing strong condemnation from Muslim countries. Some 150 people were wounded during those clashes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a call Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, said he would make contact with all sides to "end the Israeli escalation", Abbas' office said in a statement.

Pope Francis on Sunday -- with Christians marking Easter at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, where they believe Jesus died and was resurrected -- prayed for peace.

"May Israelis, Palestinians and all who dwell in the Holy City, together with the pilgrims, experience the beauty of peace, dwell in fraternity and enjoy free access to the Holy Places in mutual respect for the rights of each," he said in his Easter address.

Despite the tensions, hundreds of Christians staged a lively parade in Jerusalem, with processions led by marching bands with deafening drums and wailing bagpipes.

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Arab World

Israel Recovers the Bodies of 6 Hostages in Gaza, Including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin

(FILES) An image grab from a video released by the media office of the Palestinian group Hamas on April 24, 2024, shows an Israeli-American man who identified himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, speaking to a camera. (Photo by Hamas Media Office / various sources / AFP)
(FILES) An image grab from a video released by the media office of the Palestinian group Hamas on April 24, 2024, shows an Israeli-American man who identified himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, speaking to a camera. (Photo by Hamas Media Office / various sources / AFP)
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Israel Recovers the Bodies of 6 Hostages in Gaza, Including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin

(FILES) An image grab from a video released by the media office of the Palestinian group Hamas on April 24, 2024, shows an Israeli-American man who identified himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, speaking to a camera. (Photo by Hamas Media Office / various sources / AFP)
(FILES) An image grab from a video released by the media office of the Palestinian group Hamas on April 24, 2024, shows an Israeli-American man who identified himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, speaking to a camera. (Photo by Hamas Media Office / various sources / AFP)

Israel on Sunday said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including a young Israeli-American man who became one of the most well-known captives held by Hamas as his parents met with world leaders and pressed for his release.

The military said all six had been killed shortly before the arrival of Israeli forces. Their recovery sparked calls for mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom many Israelis blame for failing to bring them back alive in a deal with Hamas to end the 10-month-old war. Negotiations over such a deal have dragged on for months.

Netanyahu said Israel would hold Hamas accountable for killing the hostages in "cold blood," and blamed the group for the stalled negotiations, saying "whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal."

Fighters seized Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and four of the other hostages at a music festival in southern Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the war.

The native of Berkeley, California, lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the attack. In April, a Hamas-issued video showed him alive but with his left hand missing, sparking new protests in Israel urging the government to do more to secure the hostages' release.

The army identified the other dead hostages as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33; who were also taken from the music festival. The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was abducted from the nearby farming community of Be'eri.

It said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, around a kilometer (half a mile) from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued alive last week.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson, said the army believed there were hostages in the area but had no specific intelligence. He said Israeli forces found the bodies several dozen meters (yards) underground as "ongoing combat" was underway, but that there was no firefight in the tunnel itself.

He said there was no doubt that Hamas had killed them.

Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the hostages would still be alive if Israel had accepted a US- backed ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to back in July.

Families of hostages call for a "complete halt of the country" Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and says military pressure is needed to bring home the hostages.

Israel's Channel 12 reported that he got into a shouting match at a security Cabinet meeting late Thursday with his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who accused him of prioritizing control of a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border — a major sticking point in the talks — over the lives of the hostages.  

The Cabinet reportedly voted in favor of remaining in the corridor over the objections of Gallant, who said it would prevent a hostage deal.

An Israeli official confirmed the report and said three of the hostages — Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi and Gat — had been slated to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed back in July. The official was not authorized to brief media about the negotiations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

"In the name of the state of Israel, I hold their families close to my heart and ask forgiveness," Gallant said Sunday after the remains were recovered. He later called for the Cabinet to reverse its decision.

A forum of hostage families called for a massive protest on Sunday, demanding a "complete halt of the country" to push for the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release.

"A deal for the return of the hostages has been on the table for over two months. Were it not for the delays, sabotage, and excuses those whose deaths we learned about this morning would likely still be alive," it said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden, who has met with Goldberg-Polin's parents, said he was "devastated and outraged."

"It is as tragic as it is reprehensible," he said. "Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages."

Vice President Kamala Harris said her prayers were with the Goldberg-Polin family and condemned Hamas.

A high-profile campaign Goldberg-Polin’s parents, US-born immigrants to Israel, became perhaps the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the international stage. They met with Biden, Pope Francis and others and addressed the United Nations, urging the release of all hostages.

On Aug. 21, his parents addressed a hushed hall at the Democratic National Convention — after sustained applause and chants of "bring him home."

"This is a political convention. But needing our only son — and all of the cherished hostages — home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue," said his father, Jon Polin. His mother, Rachel, who bowed her head during the ovation and touched her chest, said "Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, stay strong, survive."

She and her husband sought to keep their son and the others held from being reduced to numbers, describing Hersh as a music and soccer lover and traveler with plans to attend university since his military service had ended.

Some 250 hostages were taken on Oct. 7. Israel now believes that 101 remain in captivity, including 35 who are believed to be dead. More than 100 were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Eight have been rescued by Israeli forces.

Two previous Israeli operations to free hostages killed scores of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.

Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, attacking army bases and several farming communities.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were fighters. It has displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe.

In a separate development Sunday, Palestinian militants killed three Israeli police officers when they opened fire on their vehicle in the West Bank, according to Israeli officials. Israel has been carrying out large-scale military raids across the occupied territory in recent days.