Palestinians clashed with Israeli police outside the Old City in annexed east Jerusalem late Sunday leaving a dozen people wounded and 10 arrested, police and medical sources said.
An AFP photographer said objects were thrown at officers, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades in front of Damascus Gate, as Palestinians congregated there after night prayers of the second night of the holy month of Ramadan.
Israeli police said they arrested 10 people for “rioting and attacking officers,” noting one policeman was wounded by a bottle thrown at his face, with the Palestinian Red Crescent saying 11 people were wounded at the clashes.
On Sunday afternoon, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid toured that site and met with police forces securing it.
“This is a tense period, but we have a police force we can trust to take us through it, I’m proud of our officers,” he said in remarks relayed by his office.
Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with the head of the Shin Bet internal security service and West Bank military commander following an Israeli operation near Jenin Saturday during which three Palestinian militants were killed in a gunfight by special Israeli forces.
A total of 11 people have been killed in attacks in Israel since March 22, including some carried out by assailants linked to or inspired by the Islamic State group.
Over the same period, eight Palestinians have been killed, according to an AFP tally, including two assailants in anti-Israeli attacks and six people the Israelis said had carried out attacks or were about to do so.
Last year during Ramadan, clashes that flared between Israeli forces and Palestinians visiting east Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound led to 11 days of devastating conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Islamist rulers Hamas.