Pope calls for free access to Jerusalem holy sites

VATICAN CITY/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Pope Francis on Sunday called for free access to the holy sites in Jerusalem as he delivered his annual Easter address amid simmering violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy City.

"May there be peace for the Middle East, racked by years of conflict and division. On this glorious day, let us ask for peace upon Jerusalem and peace upon all those who love her, Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. May Israelis, Palestinians and all who dwell in the Holy City, together with the pilgrims, experience the beauty of peace, dwell in fraternity and enjoy free access to the Holy Places in mutual respect for the rights of each," he said.

The latest confrontations take the number of wounded since Friday to more than 170, at a tense time when the Jewish Passover festival coincides with Ramadan. They also follow deadly violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank in late March and early this month that has killed 36 people.

Early on Sunday morning, “hundreds” of Palestinian demonstrators inside the mosque compound started gathering piles of stones, shortly before the arrival of Jewish visitors, occupation forces claimed.

Jews are allowed to visit but not to pray at the site, also known as Temple Mount, the holiest place in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 19 Palestinians were wounded, including at least five who were hospitalised. It said some had been wounded with rubber-coated steel bullets.

An AFP team near the entrance to the compound early Sunday morning saw barefoot Jewish worshippers leaving the site, protected by heavily armed forces.

Senior Palestinian official Hussein Al Sheikh said on Sunday that “Israel’s dangerous escalation in Al Aqsa compound... is a blatant attack on our holy places”, and called on the international community to intervene.

The chief of the Hamas Islamist movement which controls the Palestinian enclave of Gaza meanwhile warned Israel that “Al Aqsa is ours and ours alone”.

“Our people have the right to access it and pray in it, and we will not bow down to [Israeli] repression and terror,” Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement.

Later Sunday morning, mosques in Palestinian neighbourhoods of occupied East Jerusalem broadcast calls for people to head towards Al Aqsa compound.

Weeks of mounting tensions saw two deadly attacks by Palestinians in or near the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv in late March and early April, alongside mass arrests by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Twenty-two Palestinians have been killed over the same period, including assailants who targeted Israelis, according to an AFP tally.

On Friday morning, police confronted with Palestinians in the Al Aqsa compound, including inside Al Aqsa Mosque, drawing strong condemnation from Muslim countries. Those confrontations wounded some 150 people.

The United Nations has called for calm, a year after confrontations in and around the mosque compound escalated into an 11-day war between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.