Palestine Refuses to Crack Down on Demonstrators

Young Arabs have been clashing with Israeli police in the occupied Palestinian capital, after right-.wing Jewish religious groups and settlers have tried to prevent them from holding their usual Ramadan evening gatherings outside Damascus Gate - close to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Demonstrations are expected to continue.

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Tens of thousands of activists interacted on social media in Arab countries this Saturday with the hashtag "Jerusalem rising up", in conjunction with the ongoing confrontations between Jerusalemites and the Israeli occupation forces and their settlers.

On Friday the occupation police closed the door to "Hatta", one of the main doors leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and set up military checkpoints that prevented worshipers from entering to pray.
 

The occupation forces used tear gas canisters, live bullets, rubber bullets and wastewater, and the Israeli police cavalry forces attacked Palestinian youths, after prayers.

"What is happening in the Holy City now is an affirmation of the Arabism, Islamic and Palestinianness of this city, and that it cannot be subject to the occupation or accept it and its fascist policies,” the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, resistance organizations in Gaza launched on Friday night 36 rockets toward the occupied territories. Six of them were intercepted by the Israeli “Iron Dome” defense system, while most of the shells landed in open areas.
 

The two missile units in the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades and the National Resistance Brigades announced the shelling of settlements with rocket-propelled grenades, and said that it was a response to the "Israeli" bombing of the Gaza Strip and the occupation's crimes against the Palestinian people.

Israel, which claims occupied Jerusalem as its capital, is attempting to prevent city dwellers from participating in the Palestinian general elections due in May. All Palestinian factions have registered candidates for the the vote on a new Palestinian Parliament and the Presidency. It will be the first Presidential election in 15 years.