© Reuters. Israeli police stand guard close to a safety incident scene close to Al-Aqsa compound additionally identified to Jews because the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, April 1, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A person detained by Israeli police close to a flashpoint mosque compound in Jerusalem grabbed an officer’s gun and fired it, prompting the unit to shoot him useless, the drive stated on Saturday, in an outline of occasions questioned by Arab leaders.
The incident in a single day on the fringe of the Al Aqsa Mosque advanced, an icon of Palestinian nationalism, got here at a excessive level of Muslim attendance for the holy month of Ramadan.
The sacred website, identified to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, remained comparatively quiet on Saturday.
The slain man was recognized as Mohammad Khaled al-Osaib, 26, a resident of Bedouin city Hura in south Israel. Lawmaker Mansour Abbas, whose United Arab Checklist social gathering is standard there, stated he was a medical scholar and questioned the police account.
“All we demand is the reality,” Abbas stated.
Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm the police account. Police stated the incident befell at a spot not coated by safety cameras. Footage of comparable incidents prior to now has normally surfaced inside a short while.
Police launched CCTV of what they stated was al-Osaib strolling throughout the advanced alone proper earlier than the incident, which a spokesperson stated occurred in “seconds,” and denied experiences he had intervened in an altercation with a feminine worshipper.
Israeli-Palestinian tensions are simmering after months of violence in areas of Jerusalem and the occupied West Financial institution and friction at Al Aqsa has usually set off violence lately.
U.S.-brokered peace talks aimed toward establishing a Palestinian state within the West Financial institution, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in a 1967 conflict, have stalled for nearly a decade and present no signal of resumption.
