Israel reopens Al-Aqsa mosque after riots
Wednesday, 17 March 2010 16:43Israel has reopened the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and lifted a lockdown of the occupied West Bank, following days of rioting.
The site had been closed to Muslim men under the age of 50 since Friday.
The city is now calm, though a few dozen Palestinian youths clashed with security forces, who responded by firing rubber-coated bullets in the Qalandia refugee camp.
In the West Bank, medics confirmed that three people were wounded when Israeli troops fired rubber bullets at Palestinians near Nablus, while the army sealed off several roads in and around Hebron after brief clashes in that city.
Israel had locked down the occupied West Bank for almost a week before lifting the measure overnight.
On Tuesday, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces across east Jerusalem left dozens of police and protestors wounded. 60 Palestinians were arrested.
Meanwhile, Israel's foreign minister has described international calls to halt settlement construction in east Jerusalem as 'unreasonable'.
'I think that this demand, it comes, in many ways, as an opportunity for the international community to jump on Israel and apply pressure to Israel and to demand things that are unreasonable,' Avigdor Lieberman claimed.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.
