Watch: Israeli Police Enter Jerusalem Mosque, Fire Rubber Bullets, Drop Tear Gas from Drones

Previously: Israeli Forces Enter Mosque in Jerusalem, Hurt 117+ Palestinians

Every time there is any kind of global distraction, Israel takes the opportunity to just start randomly attacking Palestinians.

This is I guess collective punishment for some of the stabbing attacks that have taken place recently.

New York Post:

Israeli police in full riot gear stormed a sensitive Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims on Friday after Palestinian youths hurled stones at a gate where they were stationed.

The renewed violence at the site, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims, came despite Israel temporarily halting Jewish visits, which are seen by the Palestinians as a provocation.

Palestinians and Israeli police have regularly clashed at the site over the last week at a time of heightened tensions following a string of deadly attacks inside Israel and arrest raids in the occupied West Bank. Three rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

The string of events has raised fears of a repeat of last year, when protests and violence in Jerusalem eventually boiled over, helping to ignite an 11-day Gaza war and communal violence in Israel’s mixed cities.

Tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers are expected at the site later in the day for the main weekly prayers as they observe the holy month of Ramadan.

Palestinian youths hurled stones toward police at a gate leading into the compound, according to two Palestinian witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. The police, in full riot gear, then entered the compound, firing rubber bullets and stun grenades.

The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said at least 27 Palestinians were wounded, two of them seriously. There was no immediate comment from Israel, which is largely shut down for the end of the week-long Jewish Passover holiday.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City is the third holiest site in Islam. The sprawling esplanade on which it is built is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of two Jewish temples in antiquity. It lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and clashes there have often ignited violence elsewhere.

Anyway, we have to support Israel because they’re the only democracy in the Middle East.

And our values of democracy are who we are – because those are our values, and our values are who we are in a democracy.

You know – most other Moslems don’t do anything to help these Palestinians.

Not anymore, at least – they kind of used to.

It sucks for them, I’m sure.

But you know what?

Things are tough all over.