JERUSALEM — Israeli police stormed a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem on Wednesday, firing tear gas to disperse a protest by Palestinian Muslim worshipers, officials said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the crowd hurled stones and firecrackers from atop the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Rosenfeld said police then entered the site and dispersed the group with tear gas and other nonlethal means.
The compound is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and is Islam’s third-holiest site. Israel captured the area along with the rest of East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war.
Clashes often erupt at the site.
Jews typically pray below, at the Western Wall, but tensions have grown lately with an increased number of Jews arriving to pray at the Temple Mount as well. Israel permits Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount for visits, but they are barred from praying at the site. These visits often stoke rumors that Israel is preparing to take over the site.
Sheikh Azzam Tamimi, head of the Waqf, the Islamic authority that manages the site, said worshipers had barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque ‘‘to defend’’ the site from Jewish groups. Israeli TV stations showed footage of police running across the compound in riot gear with piles of stones strewn on the ground. The entrance to the mosque was barricaded with furniture, as protesters inside threw objects toward police. Tamimi said 30 people suffered from tear gas inhalation or had been struck by rubber-coated bullets. None of the injuries appeared to be serious.
Jews flock to the Western Wall during the weeklong Passover holiday. Police closed access to the adjacent Temple Mount compound after Wednesday’s clash.
The site is ground zero in the territorial and religious conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Its gold-topped Dome of the Rock enshrines the rock where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jews believe the compound is the site where the two biblical Jewish Temples stood — and where religious Jews pray a third Temple will one day be built.