How a night of worship became a night of Israeli brutality
alestinian medics help women caught up in the Israeli assault on Al-Aqsa Mosque
Fayha Shalash and Lubna Masarwa report in Middle East Eye:
Footage of heavily armed Israeli soldiers smashing their batons and guns down on cowering Palestinian worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque’s Al-Qibli prayer hall during Ramadan sparked outrage worldwide on Wednesday morning.
The reality, said Abdullah Jaber, a teenager from Jerusalem who was assaulted in the prayer hall and detained by Israeli forces on Tuesday night, was much, much worse. “They kept us on the ground, handcuffed, for a long time, and anyone who raised his head was hit with a gun,” Jaber told Middle East Eye. “My leg hurt, so I told a soldier about it, but he hit me on my chest and cursed me.”
Speaking after his release, Jaber described the terrifying moment the Israelis forced their way into the holy site in occupied East Jerusalem, where Palestinians were practising the contemplative prayer of Itikaf.
Stun grenades and teargas were fired into the thousand-year-old building, before soldiers threw Palestinians to the ground, stamped on them, and bound their hands forcefully behind their backs.
Jaber said the beatings did not stop once they were removed from the prayer hall. The Israelis hit the detained Palestinians with batons as they led them out of the hall and crammed them into a space near the mosque. Around 400 Palestinians were detained on Tuesday night. Even after they were taken to the police station, the assaults and insults continued, Jaber said. Now free, the teenager is nonetheless shaken and bruised after a night of worship became a night of brutality.
Many of the detainees were forced to sign papers banning them from Al-Aqsa Mosque for a week, as a condition of their release.
Mothers feared for their sons
For mothers of young men like Jaber who were caught up in the assault, Tuesday night was fraught with anxiety and tension. Sanaa Al-Rajabi was in constant contact with her son Ammar as the Israelis stormed the mosque – until the line went dead. He’d been arrested and taken to an interrogation centre with scores of other worshippers.