Israeli police kill Palestinian man near Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem
The man killed on Saturday was 26-year-old Mohammad Khaled al-Osaibi from Houra.
Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man at an entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, raising fears of further violence.
The man who died on Saturday was 26 years old Mohammad Khaled al-Osaibi from Houra, an Arab Bedouin village in the south of Israel. The incident occurred around midnight at the Chain Gate, an entry point to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, police said.
Palestinian worshipers at the entrance to the site on Saturday said police shot the man at least 10 times after he tried to stop them from harassing a woman on her way to the holy site.
Police alleged that al-Osaibi attempted to take a gun from an officer and fired it in a scuffle.
Hours after the incident, the muddy stone alley leading to the compound was still smeared with blood.
Israeli police have reinforced their force in the area as tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers from Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank gather for Ramadan prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
On Friday, more than 200,000 Palestinians gathered for afternoon prayers at the compound, which was conducted peacefully.
‘many shots’
Noureddine, a 17-year-old who lived nearby and refused to give his last name for fear of reprisals, said he saw al-Osaibi confront police who stopped a female worshiper on his way to the mosque.
Al-Osaibi’s relationship with the woman was not clear. Noureddine said a disagreement had developed between al-Osaibi and the officers before hearing a dozen shots ring out.
“Nothing could justify so many shots,” he said, pointing to chaotic footage he filmed that showed Palestinian vendors and worshipers screaming at the sound of bullets being fired in rapid succession. “They were all close.”
Palestinian media widely reported that al-Osaibi was a doctor who recently studied medicine in Romania.
Noureddine said that after the incident, police tried to force Palestinian vendors and worshipers out of the area, beating him and others with truncheons. Israeli police closed the site shortly before reopening it for morning prayers.
In previous years, during Ramadan, Israeli police attacked Palestinians who had gathered around Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. Ramadan coincides with the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter this year.
In 2021, the expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem served as a catalyst for widespread Palestinian protests across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.
Raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli security forces during Ramadan further heightened tensions, and four days later an 11-day Israeli assault on Gaza began, ostensibly in response to rockets fired by Hamas at Israel.