Video footage showed Israel’s “barbaric attack” as Israeli riot police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at Palestinians who hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at officers at Islam’s third-holiest site (“UAE, Saudi condemn Israeli plan to evict Palestinians”, May 9, Gulf Today).

In the violence at Al Aqsa and across annexed east Jerusalem, Israeli forces stormed the mosque’s sprawling plaza and fired grenades inside the building, where throngs of worshippers including women and children were praying on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Saturday condemned Israel’s plans to evict Palestinians from homes following a night of violence in occupied Jerusalem. The UAE “strongly condemned” the clashes and the potential evictions, in a statement by the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalifa Al Marar, and urged Israeli authorities to reduce tensions.

Marar expressed the UAE’s deep concern over the violence in occupied East Jerusalem and its strong condemnation of the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque and the displacement of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, which resulted in injuries to a number of civilians.

“Saudi Arabia rejects Israel’s plans and measures to evict dozens of Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem and impose Israeli sovereignty over them,” the kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement carried on Saudi-owned Al Arabiya. We pray for a speedy recovery of the injured, reiterate our steadfast support to the Palestinian cause and urge the (international) community to take prompt action to protect the Palestinian people.

Talal Bin Ali
By email