Police Storm Temple Mount After Muslims Throw Rocks at Officers

Police stormed the Temple Mount at the conclusion of Muslim prayers Friday after worshippers threw rocks at police deployed nearby.

Police said they fired stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets in an attempt to disperse what had become hundreds of Muslim stone-throwers. Palestinians reported at least 15 people were wounded by the bullets and by tear gas inhalation.

Police arrested 14 people, Israel Radio reported.

Thousands of Muslims barricaded themselves in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, some of them coming out to throw stones at police. After a tense stand-off, Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy and leaders of the Moslem Waqf negotiated a peaceful end, allowing the holed-up worshipers to leave the mosque quietly while police refrained from making any further arrestes.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said in a statement that al-Aqsa was "in danger" and called on all Muslims and Christians and the U.S.-led diplomatic "Quartet" of peacebrokers to help safeguard it.

Mohammed Hussein, a senior official in the Islamic Trust, which administers the mosque compound, tried to calm the situation, urging worshippers to go home, witnesses said.

"No one threw stones (before the police action)," Waqf director Adnan Husseini told Reuters. "They (police) started doing this every Friday to scare elderly worshippers as younger ones are already banned. This is flagrant violation of freedom of worship."

The Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said that Muslims threw only a single stone at Jewish worshippers, and that visitors were continuing to come to the Western Wall plaza. He told Israel Radio that worshippers were not evacuated from the area.

Police had no intelligence information that Muslim youths were planning to confront officers or Jewish worshippers this week, Israel Radio reported. When police are aware of such plans, they generally prohibit young men from participating in Friday services at the Temple Mount.