Palestinians protest against Israeli "attacks" on al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem

Dozens of Palestinians took to the streets in several West Bank cities in protest against the Israeli violations and "attacks" on al-Aqsa mosque.

Shouting slogans and hoisting Palestinian flags, protesters headed to 300 Israeli checkpoints north of Bethlehem, demanding the halt of the attacks on al-Aqsa compound which has been going on for the past two weeks.

Clashes erupted after Palestinian youth protesters hurled stones at the Israeli army forces stationed at a number of checkpoints in the West Bank.

Soldiers responded with rubber bullets and tear gas, wounding a number of protesters, Palestinian sources confirmed.

The most intense clashes took place near the Bet El settlement checkpoint near Ramallah and Bilal Bin Rabah mosque north of Bethlehem, the sources said.

Prior to the clashes, several cities have announced a two-hour commercial strike, including government bodies and schools that declared suspending work for these two hours.

Hussain Hamayel, a spokesperson for Fatah party, told Xinhua that the strike was an "outcry against the Israeli violations and attacks on al-Aqsa mosque."

He said that Palestinians rejected the Israeli "attempts to impose a temporal and spacial division at al-Aqsa, and the continuos raids on al-Aqsa squares."

Hamayel added that demonstrations also expressed a public support for President Mahmoud Abbas, a day before his scheduled speech to the United Nation's General Assembly in New York.

The squares of al-Aqsa mosque compound have been a site of clashes almost daily between the Israeli security forces and Palestinian worshippers for the past two weeks.

Palestinians protested against allowing Jewish groups to enter al-Aqsa compound on Jewish holidays, saying that Israel wants to impose a spacial division at the compound by limiting access of Muslim worshippers to the site and allowing settlers in, which contradicts to an agreed status quo on the site. Endit