PNA slams Israel for temporal division attempt at Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned on Monday the Israeli settlers' "raid" on Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem under the protection of the Israeli police forces Monday morning.

The Israeli police continues to impose restrictions on the movement of people, particularly worshippers, and blocking several streets and town entrances in the holy city, the minister said in a statement.

The ministry accused the Israeli authorities of turning Jerusalem and its suburbs into a big jail in order to impose a temporal and spatial division at Al-Aqsa compound.

The statement said the ministry's efforts are to "expose the Israeli violations and their ramifications."

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki has held several meetings with his peers from different states on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings.

In the meetings, Malki stressed "the Israeli government is waging comprehensive war against Jerusalem and the holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa mosque," the statement said,

Malki has called upon the Arabic and Islamic worlds, the UN and the Security Council, to assume their human and legal responsibilities imposed by the international laws and provide protection to the Palestinian people.

The squares of Al-Aqsa mosque compound resorted to calmness after clashes broke out Monday morning between Palestinian worshippers and the Israeli police forces.

Palestinian sources told Xinhua that 15 Palestinians were injured in the clashes that erupted upon the entrance of police members to Al-Aqsa to evict Palestinian worshippers who spent their night there in protection of their holy site.

The renewed clashes coincided with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot from Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, the Israeli police said that the confrontation flared up after negotiations failed to convince the Palestinian worshippers to evacuate Al-Aqsa.

The public Israeli radio reported that the Israeli police has entered the compound to remove blocks placed by mask-men in order to prevent the police from entering and closing down the mosque's gate.

The police said it responded to the Palestinian molotov cocktail throwers by using protests-dispersing measures, adding that the police won't allow worshippers to garrison at the mosque, according to the radio.

Al-Aqsa compound witnesses fierce confrontations in the last two weeks as Palestinians worshipers and the Israeli police forces clashed almost daily after Palestinians protested allowing Jewish groups to enter Al-Aqsa compound on Jewish holidays.

Jerusalem stays at the heart of the Middle East conflict, where Palestinians consider the east part of it as the capital of their future state, and Israelis insists that the holy city is their "indivisible" capital.

The international community doesn't recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem in 1967 war and doesn't consider the city as the capital of the state of Israel. Endit