Security forces arrest dozens at Temple Mount on Lailat al-Qadr
The last and fourth weekend of the Ramadan period ended with police detaining 24 people, most of them between the ages of 14-19, suspected of inciting to terrorism, attacking police officers, shooting fireworks, and disorderly conduct.
Of those, 16 were arrested during the night between Friday and Saturday, as well as in the morning hours after the end of the Lailat al-Qadr (evening) and Fajr (dawn) prayers on the Temple Mount area.
About 3,600 policemen under the command of the district commander were deployed in the areas of the Old City and the Temple Mount over the weekend.
In one incident, on early Saturday morning, the police acted to stop inciting chants that began at the end of the Fajr prayer. Following the shooting of a number of fireworks into the air from the Temple Mount area, calls of incitement were heard, and one suspect, a resident of the North, was arrested.
These “instigators and supporters
of terrorism are residents of the State of Israel who are [trying to] take advantage of a religious occasion and use a holy place of prayer for incitement and support for terrorism and terrorists,” the police said. “They’re harming first
and foremost the normative Muslim public, who comes to the Temple Mount and does not take part in those serious incitement demonstrations.
“Those people cast a stain on the Muslim residents of Israel, and we call on everyone who
opposes terrorism and incitement to terrorism to act to prevent similar incidents in a holy place.”
Friday prayers on the Temple Mount were attended peacefully by tens of thousands of worshipers.