Israeli Police Fatally Shoot Man at Jerusalem's Holy Site

Israeli police close a path leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after shots were fired in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Saturday, April 1, 2023. (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean)
Israeli police close a path leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after shots were fired in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Saturday, April 1, 2023. (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean)
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Israeli Police Fatally Shoot Man at Jerusalem's Holy Site

Israeli police close a path leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after shots were fired in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Saturday, April 1, 2023. (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean)
Israeli police close a path leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after shots were fired in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Saturday, April 1, 2023. (AP Photo/ Mahmoud Illean)

Israeli police shot and killed a man who allegedly tried to steal an officer’s weapons at a flashpoint Jerusalem site late Friday, police said.

The police said the slain man was 26 years old and from an Arab village in southern Israel, The Associated Press reported.

Authorities said the incident in Jerusalem's Old City happened when officers stopped the man for questioning outside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is the third holiest shrine in Islam.

Footage shared widely on social media showed Israeli police deploying heavily in the alleys and gates leading to the compound after the shooting. Scuffles broke out between police and Palestinian vendors and worshipers who spend the night praying at the mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.

More than 200,000 Palestinians had gathered earlier for Friday's noon prayers at the compound and the ceremony ended without the usual frictions with Israeli police.

The hilltop compound is revered also by Jews as the Temple Mount, and incidents in previous years have spilled into clashes in the West Bank and fighting between Israel and Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers.

Since last spring, violence between Israel and the Palestinians has been high.

Eighty-six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli or settler gunfire this year, according to an Associated Press tally. Palestinian attacks have killed 15 Israelis in the same period.

Stone-throwing youths protesting police incursions and people not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their future independent state.



France: The Arrest of Writer Boualem Sansal in Algeria is ‘Unacceptable’

Renowned French Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal (AFP)
Renowned French Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal (AFP)
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France: The Arrest of Writer Boualem Sansal in Algeria is ‘Unacceptable’

Renowned French Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal (AFP)
Renowned French Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal (AFP)

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described on Wednesday the “baseless” arrest of renowned French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal in Algeria as “unacceptable”.
“Nothing in Boualem Sansal’s activities justifies the accusations that have led to his imprisonment,” Barrot told FranceInfo.

Sansal, 75, who obtained French citizenship earlier this year, was arrested this month at Algiers airport upon returning from France.
“The detention of a French writer without grounds is simply unacceptable,” the FM said.
Barrot also said state services are fully mobilised in Algiers and Paris to monitor Sansal’s situation and allow him access to consular protection.
Sensal has been questioned by Algeria’s anti-terrorism prosecutor and was placed in detention, his French lawyer, Francois Zimeray, said.
The writer was indicted Tuesday under Algeria’s Article 87 bis on charges of “undermining the integrity of the national territory,” the lawyer added.
On Friday, Algeria’s state news agency APS finally acknowledged his arrest without clarifying the circumstances.
Sansal, who has repeatedly criticized Algerian officials, was arrested on November 16 on arrival at Algiers airport.
Zimeray said that, “the deprivation of liberty of an 80-year-old writer because of his writings is a serious act.”
He added, “Whatever injuries or sensitivities are invoked, they are inseparable from the very concept of freedom, which has been hard-won in Algeria,” according to AFP.
“If there must be an investigation, it in no way justifies extending the detention of Boualem Sansal,” the lawyer said.
When questioned on Tuesday in the French National Assembly about the possibility of punishing Algerian officials in this highly sensitive issue, the Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Attractiveness and French Nationals Abroad, Sophie Primas, said: “At this stage, I cannot tell you more because diplomacy requires action in silence, not silence itself.'"