Dressed in sparkly new clothes and clutching balloons, excited children Thursday reveled in the Muslim Eid al-Fitr celebrations in Jerusalem's Old City. But days of violence lay heavy on their parents' hearts.
As the first rays of sun began to break over the al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site of Islam, crowds of Palestinians gathered for the first prayers to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Clashes erupted in Jerusalem between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in which hundreds of Palestinians were injured. Israeli forces and Palestinians have clashed over Israeli restrictions on nightly gatherings there after the Ramadan fast.
300 Palestinians — who had come to pray at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City during the holy month of Ramadan — injured in clashes with Israeli forces, who fired rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades. The city remained tense.
Hundreds of Palestinians were injured as well as dozens of Israeli police in the clashes which also erupted on the Temple Mount, the most sacred site in Judaism, on which the al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock shrine also stand.
The convulsion of violence has since spread, engulfing the Gaza Strip run by the Islamic militant Hamas movement, the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and Israeli cities which have seen unprecedented mob clashes between Jewish and Arab residents.
According to the United Nations, east Jerusalem has been illegally occupied and annexed by Israel since then.
