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Israel deployed thousands of police on the streets of Jerusalem Tuesday to
protect a Jewish holiday parade after days of rock throwing and clashes
with Palestinians.
The trouble began 10 days ago when crowds of
young Palestinian men threw rocks at police, apparently after hearing
that a group of religious Jews was about to enter the Haram al-Sharif,
known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in the heart of Jerusalem's Old
City. Police fired teargas and rubber-coated bullets at the
Palestinians and closed access to the holy site.
There was more
rock throwing and teargas over the weekend at the start of the Jewish
holiday week of Sukkot, a time when many Israeli Jews walk into the Old
City to the Western Wall to pray. Dozens of Palestinians were arrested
and several police officers injured, including one who suffered a
moderate injury when he was stabbed in the neck on Monday while
checking identity cards on a Palestinian bus. But Tuesday appeared to
pass without new clashes.
Violence is rarely far below the
surface in the tense city of Jerusalem, and this latest round of
clashes appeared to have been sparked by rumors that right-wing Jewish
groups were intent on marching onto the Temple Mount. One leading
Israeli newspaper, the Yedioth Ahronoth, described the troubles as
"Sukkot riots" on its front page yesterday, and the Israeli press
variously blamed Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls
Gaza, and its rival, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West
Bank.
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