Israel:Clashes resume at Al-Aqsa mosque, rockets fired from Gaza

Israeli police clashed with Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque a second time on Wednesday, hours after the arrest and removal of more than 350 people in a police raid at the compound and despite a U.S. appeal to ease tensions.Israeli police said in a statement that its forces entered al-Aqsa after “hundreds of rioters and mosque desecrators (had) barricaded themselves” inside. “When the police entered, stones were thrown at them, and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators,” according to the statement.The incident came during the month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover, stoking fears of further violence at the mosque compound, a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian militants fired at least nine rockets from Gaza into Israel, prompting air strikes from Israel which hit what it said were weapon production sites for the Islamist group Hamas, which controls the blockaded coastal enclave. Hamas did not claim responsibility for the rocket attacks but said they were a response to the raid on Al-Aqsa, where clashes in 2021 set off a 10-day war with Gaza. The Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's Old City, is Islam's third holiest site and tens of thousands come to pray there during Ramadan. It is also Judaism's most sacred site, revered as Temple Mount, a vestige of the two biblical Jewish temples.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the situation had been caused by "extremists" who barricaded themselves inside the mosque with weapons, stones and fireworks."Israel is committed to maintaining freedom of worship , free access to all religions and the status quo on the Temple Mount and will not allow violent extremists to change that," he said in a statement.