BY SAM KILEY IN JERUSALEM ISRAELI police stormed the disputed Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary complex in Jerusalem last night, tearing down Palestinian flags and dispersing hundreds of stone and petrol bomb throwers at the end of a "day of rage" called by militant Islamic groups. At least 11 Palestinians were killed during clashes on the West Bank, Gaza and in East Jerusalem, where the mount/sanctuary, site of the Al Aqsa mosque and a location sacred to both Jews and Muslims, is situated. Palestinians had hoisted two national flags on the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City yesterday in a symbolic statement of sovereignty over the contested site. For Muslims, Al Aqsa and the Noble Sanctuary is the third-holiest place in Islam; for Jews, the Temple Mount is their holiest site, the location of the Second Temple, destroyed in AD70. Past peace talks have foundered on Palestinian demands to fly their flag over the site. Earlier in the day, in an effort to reduce tensions, the Israelis handed over responsibility for controlling the entrances to the site to the Islamic Council, the Waqf, and to Fatah, the armed wing of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Friday prayers ended with a brief bout of stone-throwing from the mosque area to the Jewish Western Wall. Moments later, as Muslim worshippers left the mosque area, they set fire to a police station guarding St Stephen's Gate (the Lion Gate) and seized about 150 yards of the Via Dolorosa, the route revered by Christians, which they believe Christ took on his way to his crucifixion. Three hours of running battles in al-Ghazali Square, just off the Via Dolorosa (The Way of Sorrows) followed and the Palestinians attempted to capture a part of the Old City. Caught in a volley of rubber bullets from Israeli riot police, seven youths fell simultaneously. Three were shot in the back while running away, one bled heavily from the area around his left kidney and a boy of about 13 was carried away. He was bleeding from his head and lay on a stretcher so inert that the rioters assumed he was dead and charged the Israeli police who had shot him, hurling rocks and screaming "Allahu akbar" (God is Greatest). Palestinian medical sources said that the young boy was in a critical condition and was expected to die at any moment. Mohammed Hussein, the Imam of the al-Aqsa mosque, who preached yesterday, appealed to Palestinians to respect the concessions the Israelis had made over the disputed holy site. "The occupiers have withdrawn unilaterally. Don't give them the chance to come back," he said. Access to the mosque for the vast majority of Muslims living on the West Bank had been denied by a total closure by Israeli Armed Forces. The soldiers held them back at barricades which swiftly turned into the focus of riots and gun fights between Palestinian police and Israeli soldiers, and of more bloodshed. At least 77 people have died since Ariel Sharon, the Likud Party leader, set off a wave of unrest across Israel and the Palestinian areas by insisting on touring the Al Aqsa complex to assert Israeli sovereignty over it. Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire at several places in the West Bank and Gaza, where tens of thousands of protesters marched on Israeli military positions. Five Palestinians were killed at Netzarim Junction in Gaza, four more in the West Bank, including two people in the biggest demonstration, in Nablus, and one in East Jerusalem. Dozens more were injured. Twenty four policemen were injured on the Via Dolorosa, including one who was burned when a petrol bomb set his uniform alight. As dusk fell at St Stephen's Gate the Palestinians were still in control of the Ghazali Square behind it and had destroyed two Israeli police stations on the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount. In Tunis, the Palestinian leader, Yassir Arafat, said there would be no let up in the violence and the attempts to force the Israelis out of pockets all over the territories. "This will not stop until a Palestinian state is declared," he said. In Amman, the Jordanian capital, riot police fired teargas and deployed armoured vehicles to clamp down on a protests by hundreds of demonstrators trying to march on the Israeli Embassy. More than 30,000 people - 75,000 according to organisers - rallied to a call by Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood and gathered to vent their anger at Israel. Witnesses said several stone-throwing protesters were hurt when police fired teargas or struck them with clubs in violent confrontations that broke out after Friday prayers near the Israeli Embassy in residential Rabiyeh. At least 2,000 demonstrators also filed out of mosques in the Baqaa refugee camp north of Amman and marched peacefully inside the compound, where they burnt several Israeli flags and vowed to avenge Palestinian blood. Similar demonstrations also filled the streets of other Jordanian towns including Irbid, where protesters denounced the Israeli "massacres" of Palestinians. The Times 07.10.00 _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
