Alwaght-Israeli regime forces have killed at least four Palestinians, including a child, amid mass protests over new Israeli security measures imposed at al-Aqsa Mosque and different locations in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Israeli regime forces have violently suppressed the protest in East al-Quds, as well as other solidarity marches in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, with medical sources saying over 300 Palestinians had been injured by Israeli forces during the Friday clashes.
Israeli regime banned Muslim men under the age of 50 from the vicinity of al-Aqsa mosque as Palestinians called for 'Day of Rage' protests against Israeli violation of the holy Islamic site.
Last Friday, three Palestinians and two Israeli police officers were killed in a shooting just outside al-Aqsa Mosque.
Following the incident, Israeli regime forces shut down the Aqsa compound in and canceled Muslim Friday prayers at the site for the first time since 1969.
After coming under fire from the Muslim world, the Israeli regime reopened the compound, but with metal detectors and surveillance cameras at entrances. Since then, however, Palestinians have been refusing to enter the al-Aqsa compound through the metal detectors and hundreds of worshipers have been holding prayers outside the site with clashes occasionally breaking out.
Among those killed in Friday's brutality by Israeli regime forces was Mohammad Sharaf, 17, from Silwan town. Witnesses said Sharaf was shot in the neck by Zionist settler, and later succumbed to his wounds
Martyr Mohammad Sharaf, 17Very shortly after his death, mourners carried out Sharaf's funeral, out of fear that Israeli forces might confiscate his body, as participants chanted slogans about the teenager and Al-Aqsa.
The body of martyr Mohammad SharafA second youth called Mohammad Abu Ghannam, 21, was also killed in al-Tour neighborhood in the city. Israeli police has stormed Alia Hospital in Jerusalem for arresting some of the wounded. Locals say Abu Ghanam was a 20-year-old resident of al-Tur and a second-year student at Birzeit University.
Later on Friday afternoon, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said a Palestinian succumbed to his wounds in a hospital in Ramallah after having been shot in the chest by Israeli regime forces during a demonstration in the village of Abu Dis in the al-Quds district of the West Bank.
The slain Palestinian was identified by local sources as 17-year-old Muhammad Mahmoud Khalaf. Meanwhile, A 7 year-old Palestinian child has been suffocated to death after being exposed to Israeli tear gas in the village of Al-Ram in Occupied al-Quds.
Blood stained body of martyr Mohammad Abu Ghannam, 21 (inset)The protests come a week after a deadly shoot-out at occupied al-Quds which triggered tensions. The rallies started after Friday prayer in different locations in the occupied city.
Israeli regime forces fired live ammunition, tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at Palestinians protesting against the new measure.
Israeli forces also arrested a number of Palestinian youths at different barriers at the entrances to Occupied Jerusalem as well as the Old City and the gates of al-Aqsa Mosque. Hundreds of Israeli troops were deployed in the Old City and on buildings' rooftops.
Buses carrying worshipers from 1948 Occupied Palestine were also banned from entering the holy shrine.
The occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed new tensions after Israeli regime forces introduced restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds in August 2015.
Over 300 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces in the new Palestinian uprising or Intifada since the beginning of October 2015.
Over the past decades, the Israeli regime has tried to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.
Palestinians have declared al-Quds as the capital of a future Palestinian independent state, and that its heritage should remain intact.
The al-Aqsa mosque, which lies in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds, is a flashpoint and is Islam’s third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina.
