Israeli Forces Injure 16 Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque

For a third straight day, Palestinians and Israeli forces clashed at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, injuring at least 16 Palestinians, Al Jazeera reported this Tuesday.

Suleiman Ahmad, the president of Jerusalem's Affairs Department, told Al Jazeera the Israeli forces were firing rubber bullets at Palestinians from rooftops.

"They have placed snipers on the rooftops and are using rubber bullets," Suleiman said.

Police also used tear gas and threw stun grenades at Palestinian youths, who barricaded themselves inside the mosque. They responded to the Israeli aggression with rocks and flares, a witness told Reuters.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas released a statement in which he “strongly condemned the aggression of the Israeli storming of Al-Aqsa this morning with troops and occupation police."

On the first day of the clashes Sunday, Israeli police raided the plaza outside the mosque claiming to prevent Palestinian attempts to disrupt visits by Jewish and foreign tourists on the eve of the Jewish New Year.

But according to Al Jazeera, Palestinians fear the Tel Aviv government will change the rules for visiting the Al-Aqsa compound.

The compound was opened to visitors after violence subsided, police said.

Jewish ultra-nationalists have been pushing the Israeli government to allow Jewish prayer on the compound outside Al-Aqsa, which stands above Judaism's Western Wall.

Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its indivisible and eternal capital, a claim not recognized internationally.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 war, as the capital of a Palestinian state.

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