Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youth continued to clash Friday in what has been a violent week in Jerusalem and the West Bank, Al-Jazeera English reports.
Says AJE's Nour Odeh:
"The situation has quietened down, but there were fierce clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli soldiers. The amount of tear gas used in the city is just quite unbelievable and a dozen injuries have been reported in the occupied West Bank."
Similar clashes occurred Friday at Bilin and Nilin, as protesters demonstrated against the Israeli "security barrier."
Jerusalem
Friday also saw a retightening of security in East Jerusalem, as skirmishes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli police. AJE's Sherine Tadros reports from Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem:
"A lot of people are angry at what is taking place in Hebron and are coming out to show solidarity... It is all of course mounting tension over what Palestinians here see as a restriction of their basic rights."
Tightened security means Al-Aqsa age restrictions were back in place Friday, barring men under 50 from entering Al-Aqsa compound for Friday prayers.
Third Intifada
Some are calling the escalating violence in East Jerusalem and the West Bank grounds for a third intifada (intifada in arabic means "to shake off," but its common connotation is "popular uprising"), but no major parties have called for it directly.
Senior Fatah official Mohammad Dahlan insists his party "does not seek a third intifada," but he also warned that Palestinians "have the right and duty to defend themselves and the Islamic holy sites." Earlier in the week, Dahlan urged Hamas to join forces with Fatah to make a unified case against Israeli injustice in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
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Photo: Rusty Stewart - Flickr
Posted
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20 Mar 2010 6:19 AM
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