Seven Israeli police injured in clashes

Palestinian protesters threw stones at Israeli police guarding a disputed holy site today, slightly wounding seven officers, including Jerusalem’s police chief, authorities said.

Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said the clash broke out after police barred several hundred Palestinian youths from reaching the site, which houses the Al Aqsa Mosque compound. The youths threw rocks at the officers, and Chief Ilan Franco received several stitches for a wound to his leg.

Ben-Ruby said police used stun grenades to disperse the crowd. He said there were no reports of injured protesters.

Police restricted access to Muslims over the age of 45, hoping to head off violence, amid rumours that an extremist Jewish group planned to march to the compound, which is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

The ultra-nationalist Jewish group Revava, which was barred from approaching the compound last month, did not arrive on Monday, Ben-Ruby said.

The compound, located in Jerusalem’s Old City, is the most sensitive spot in the Israel-Palestinian dispute.

The Al Aqsa compound, where the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven, is Islam’s third-holiest shrine. The mosque compound was built on the ruins of the ancient biblical Jewish Temples, making it the holiest site in Judaism.

Extremist Jews have threatened to storm the hilltop in the summer to divert police and soldiers from Gaza to Jerusalem, and thereby stop the planned Israeli pullout from Gaza.

A visit to the site by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, when he was opposition leader in late 2000, sparked riots that erupted into more than four years of violence.