Israel arrests Palestinians during Jerusalem violence

Israeli police arrested nine Palestinians and tried to disperse stone-throwing youths outside Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, a spokeswoman said. Palestinians threw stones at policemen at Damascus Gate in Arab east Jerusalem, lightly injuring one, in ongoing small-scale clashes that followed Friday prayers, Luba Samri said in a statement. Outside the southern walls of the Old City, near the al-Aqsa mosque, Palestinian youths burned tyres and pelted police with stones, Samri added. Meanwhile, thousands of demonstrators in the Gaza Strip protested in support of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, in marches called for by the enclave's Islamist rulers Hamas. Jerusalem sees regular clashes between Palestinians and police at the compound that houses the al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques in the Old City. The al-Aqsa compound is a flashpoint because of its significance to both Muslims and Jews. It is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Jews worship at the Western Wall, venerated as the last remnant of the one supporting the Second Temple complex, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD and is considered Judaism's holiest site. Jews are not allowed to pray inside the compound. Source: AFP