Tensions build around Jerusalem shrine after Syria strikes

Israeli police escort Jewish visitors marking the holiday of Passover to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Sunday. PIC/AP

Israeli warplanes and artillery struck targets in Syria following rare rocket fire from the neighbour, as Jewish-Muslim tensions reached a peak on Sunday at a volatile Jerusalem shrine with simultaneous religious rituals.

Thousands of Jewish worshippers gathered at the city's Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, for a mass priestly benediction prayer service for the Passover holiday. At the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a walled esplanade above the Western Wall, hundreds of Palestinians prayed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Hundreds of Jews also visited the Al-Aqsa compound under heavy police guard Sunday, to whistles and religious chants from Palestinians protesting their presence. Such tours by religious and nationalist Jews have increased in size and frequency over the years, and are viewed with suspicion by many Palestinians who fear that Israel plans one day to take over the site or partition it.

Also Read: Rockets fired from Gaza as Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa

Israeli officials say they have no intention of changing long-standing arrangements that allow Jews to visit, but not pray in the Muslim-administered site. However, the country is governed by the most right-wing government in its history, with ultra-nationalists in senior positions. Tensions have soared in the past week at the flashpoint shrine after an Israeli police raid on the mosque.

Often Palestinians have barricaded themselves inside Al-Aqsa Mosque with stones and firecrackers, demanding the right to pray there overnight, something Israel has only allowed during the last 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Police removed them by force. The violence at the shrine triggered rocket fire by Palestinian militants from Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, from Wednesday, and Israeli airstrikes targeted both areas.

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