Israeli police fired stun grenades at Arab youths who threw rocks at them in the compound of Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City today, Israeli and Palestinian officials and witnesses said.
The clash, in which police said 12 people were arrested, came a month after a similiar incident that led to restrictions on entry for worshippers for several days. It adds to tensions that are already running high as US president Barack Obama struggles, so far in vain, to relaunch peace negotiations.
An hour or so after the first clash, in which police said less than 100 youths took part, journalists saw a fresh outbreak of violence when young Arab men threw rocks, lumps of masonry and water tanks from the roofs of houses at police in the narrow alleyways around the mosque compound.
A fire broke out in one street, prompting Israeli forces to back away and raising fears fire could spread to gas supplies.
Journalists saw Israeli police and troops inside the compound, as helicopters clattered overhead.
The al-Aqsa compound, Islam's third holiest site which also includes Jerusalem's signature 7th-century Dome of the Rock, has been a tinderbox for conflict since Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
Judaism's most revered prayer site is the Western Wall of the esplanade, where many believe the Jewish Temple stood until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
A visit to the mosque compound nine years ago by Israeli right-wing leader Ariel Sharon was credited with sparking an Intifada, or uprising, by Palestinians. Five years of violence killed several thousand people and wrecked efforts toward peace.
Palestinian officials have complained that Israel is tightening its grip on the Old City and Arab East Jerusalem.
World powers support Palestinian efforts to negotiate a state with its capital in Jerusalem but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any change in Israel's position that the city must be the united capital of the Jewish state.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police used stun grenades against the crowd. He denied a statement by a Palestinian official, Hathem Abdel Qader, that they had used tear gas or rubber bullets, or that they entered the mosque.
Israel has accused Palestinian officials of inciting trouble at the site in recent weeks. Diplomats have said that some tensions have been raised by factional disputes among Muslim groups using the mosque compound, with some local Islamic leaders challenging the authority of established clerics.
Reuters