Holy Site Again Erupts in Violence

In an angry confrontation staged on the same sacred ground where the current Palestinian uprising erupted more than 3 1/2 years ago, Israeli riot police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets Friday at hundreds of stone-throwing Palestinians in the Al Aqsa mosque compound, while Jewish worshipers fled for cover in the Western Wall plaza below.

The clash atop the flagstoned plateau, which houses the third-holiest shrine in Islam, was among the most serious outbreaks of violence at the site since the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, began in September 2000 during a visit by then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon, now Israel’s prime minister.

The latest fighting in the tinderbox venue of the Old City came as Israeli-Palestinian tensions were running high -- 11 days after Israel’s assassination in the Gaza Strip of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the radical Islamic group Hamas, and just three days before the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

But in what might be an indication of lessons learned by both sides, Friday’s clash did not result in any deaths or serious injuries, and Israeli and Palestinian officials credited hastily convened negotiations between Israeli police and Muslim religious authorities with helping to avert what could have been a far more explosive and bloody encounter.

Fourteen Palestinians were arrested, Israeli police said, and Palestinians reported dozens of injuries. Half a dozen Israeli policemen were also hurt, but none seriously, said police spokesman Gil Kleiman.

Elsewhere, however, the conflict juddered ahead with deadlier results.

Palestinian gunmen attacked the West Bank settlements of Avnei Hefetz and Enav early today, rescue services and Israel Radio reported. One assailant and an Israeli man were killed, and the Israeli’s daughter was wounded.

Three Palestinians, at least one of them a gunman, were killed by Israeli troops Friday in other incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Sharon, in interviews published Friday in the three leading Israeli newspapers, amplified recent threats made by his government against Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, while spelling out in the greatest detail yet his initiative to uproot Jewish settlements in Gaza.

“We need to get out of Gaza, not to be responsible anymore for what happens there,” Sharon told the mass-circulation daily Maariv. “I hope by next Passover we will be in the midst of disengagement, because disengagement is good for Israel.”

The prime minister, who is under threat of indictment in a bribery case, has in recent days intensified his campaign to win approval for his Gaza initiative from both domestic constituents and the Bush administration. Sharon said in the interviews that he was ordering a halt to new construction in the Gaza settlements in anticipation of a pullout.

Senior Israeli officials, most recently army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, have previously suggested that Israel might move against Arafat in the same way it targeted Yassin. Israeli officials have made similar threats against Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia.

“I wouldn’t suggest that either one of them should feel secure,” Sharon told the Haaretz newspaper. “I wouldn’t propose that any insurance company give them coverage.”

Palestinian officials decried the prime minister’s comments as an obstacle to restarting peace talks. “These are serious threats, and we take them very seriously,” said Arafat aide Nabil abu Rudaineh.

The confrontation at the Al Aqsa mosque compound, which is revered by Jews as the site of their ancient temples, erupted at the end of Friday prayers, the highlight of the Muslim week.

A relatively small group of Palestinians broke away from the throng of thousands of worshipers to throw stones at Israeli police just outside the compound, witnesses said.

Police with riot shields then moved in, firing rubber bullets to subdue the crowd.

Jewish worshipers, engaged in prayers at the Western Wall just below to usher in the Sabbath, fled the area or clung to the wall’s giant yellow stones as the stun grenades reverberated from the hilltop compound.

Kleiman, the Israeli police spokesman, said Israeli forces had moved quickly to protect Jews at the Western Wall after the stone-throwing began.

“We acted with considerable restraint,” he said. “This could have ended very differently.”

Last Friday, Israeli authorities imposed age restrictions on Palestinians entering the compound for prayers. This week, the restrictions were lifted, and nearly 25,000 worshipers -- five times the number last week -- converged on the shrine.