Tensions high after clashes

TENSIONS ran high yesterday in annexed east Jerusalem after hundreds of Palestinians were wounded in a weekend of clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces, sparking global concern that the unrest could spread further.

The violence around Jerusalem’s revered Al-Aqsa mosque compound and the Old City, mostly at night, is the worst since 2017, fuelled by a years-long bid by Jewish settlers to take over Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem.

The unrest swept parts of the occupied West Bank and a rocket was fired early Sunday from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, with the Israeli army saying it responded with an air strike that struck a Hamas military post.

Tunisia’s foreign ministry said it had called for a meeting of the UN Security Council today to discuss the escalating violence amid growing international calls for an end to the unrest.

Some 100 Palestinians were wounded in Saturday’s overnight clashes, many hit by rubber bullets and stun grenades, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.