Palestinian women, in front of the Dome of the Rock. (Reuters)

Occupied Jerusalem—Palestinians stood up Monday, June 6, to attempts by extremist Jews, backed by Israeli police, to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque to mark Israel’s occupation of Arab East Jerusalem 38 years ago.

The mosque’s esplanade was bustling with scores of Palestinians, who descended on the old town late Sunday, June 5, to deter supporters of the far-right Jewish groups Revava and the Temple Mount Faithful, who have frequently been threatening to storm Islam’s third holiest shrine.

Palestinians Monday pelted extremist Jews with stones and glass bottles, injuring two of them and forcing the others to retreat.

Israeli police forces then faced off against the Palestinians, firing stun grenades and tear gas canisters, wounding at least five.

Palestinian scholars, including deputy head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib, appealed for calm and Israeli soldiers later pulled out from the mosque compound.

Occupied Jerusalem police spokesman, Shmuel Ben-Ruby, said Palestinians had thrown stones at groups of Jews visiting the compound on “Jerusalem Day”, which marks Israel’s seizure of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, according to Reuters.

Israel Radio said local Muslim religious authorities had appealed for calm as several hundred chanting Palestinians faced off against police and waved green Islamic flags outside Al-Aqsa.

The Israeli occupation army set up checkpoints around Al-Quds Sunday and deployed dozens of forces, turning the holy city into a garrison.

It further banned Palestinian worshippers under 40 from entering the mosque.

Over the past two months, thousands of Palestinians used to gather in and outside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to shield it against “malicious attempts” to storm Al-Aqsa by extremist Jews.

Anti-Zionism Jewish group Neturei Karta condemned last month the storming attempts, urging the Jews of the world to reject the Zionist schemes orchestrated by the “illegal” state of Israel.

‘Dire Circumstances’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, commenting on the incident, told reporters in the West Bank Monday that visits by right-wing Jews to the holy site could have “dire circumstances,” Reuters news agency reported.

In the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad resistance group said any harm to Al-Aqsa would be met with “martyrdom operations, rocket firings, infiltrations and bombings.”

The second Palestinian Intifada erupted in September 2000 after Sharon, Israel’s opposition leader at the time, toured the compound.

Palestinian experts warned last month that threats by Jewish extremist groups to storm the mosque had a more serious religious undertone as they believe that 2005 was the year for the construction of the so-called third temple.

They said that such groups are “fed on Zionist and racist ideologies stemming basically from the right-wing and took, over the years, the shape of armed gangs, which work covertly and overtly.”

Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which includes Al-Aqsa Mosque, represents the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict because of its religious significance for Muslims.

Jews claim that their alleged Haykal (Temple of Solomon) exists underneath Al-Haram Al-Sharif which was the first qiblah (direction Muslims take during prayers).

Palestinian and Jordanian archeologists have warned that ongoing Israeli excavations have weakened the foundations of the mosque, cautioning it would not stand a powerful earthquake.

A part of the road leading to one of the mosque’s main gates collapsed in February last year due to the destructive Israeli digging work.

Reports said earlier in the week that Israeli-backed Jewish extremists are building a religious city under Al-Aqsa.