Jerusalem – Masked Palestinians threw stones and shot fireworks at Israeli police at a contentious Jerusalem holy site for a second day in a row on Monday, as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the resumption of peace efforts.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the Palestinians, who were holed up in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, attacked officers with fireworks and rocks they had stockpiled inside. The mosque is part of a compound sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
He said police locked the protesters in the mosque and opened the site to tourists and Jewish visitors. The protesters attacked police again later in the day, prompting them to use “riot-dispersal means,” he said, adding that 10 people have been arrested.
Muslims refer to the site as the Noble Sanctuary, where they believe the Prophet Muhammad embarked on a night journey to heaven. Jews refer to the site, where the two Jewish temples stood in biblical times, as the Temple Mount.
