UPDATE - Over 150 Palestinians injured as Israeli police storm Al-Aqsa

By Abdelraouf Arnaout and Mahmoud Barakat

UPDATES WITH NUMBER OF PEOPLE INJURED, ISRAELI POLICE STATEMENT, CONDEMNATIONS, MINOR EDITS

JERUSALEM (AA) - More than 150 Palestinians were injured at dawn on Friday as the Israeli police stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that 152 Palestinians were injured during clashes with the Israeli police in the courtyards of the mosque.

The Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets, tear gas, or beaten by the Israeli police which also fired a barrage of stun grenades.

In a statement, the Islamic Endowment Department in Jerusalem, said that one of the mosque's guards was hit in the eye by a rubber-coated metal bullet.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli police pursued the worshipers and beat them in the mosque's courtyards.

For its part, the Israeli police announced in a statement that three of its members were slightly injured by stones thrown at them.

The police also noted in another statement that its forces removed the “rioters” in Al-Aqsa Mosque and arrested about 300 of them.

Thousands of worshipers were in the mosque where they were performing the morning prayer.

In an earlier statement, the police said that they intervened after stones were thrown at the Western Wall, known to Muslims as Buraq Wall.

- Condemnations

The Palestinian presidency condemned the Israeli forces' storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and called for "immediate international intervention against the Israeli attacks."

Storming the mosque "is a dangerous development and desecration of sanctities, and it is tantamount to declaring a war on our Palestinian people," Presidential Spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said in a statement carried by the official WAFA news agency.

Also, the Jerusalem Affairs Minister in the Palestinian Authority, Fadi al-Hadmi called on the international community to take action to put an end to the “Israeli violations.”

Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, the director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, called on Palestinians to come to the mosque to defend it and offer Friday prayers there.

Hamas condemned the Israeli “brutality,” with its political chief Ismail Haniyeh asserting that “the Palestinian people's decision is to defend and protect Al-Aqsa Mosque at all costs.”

The Presidential Committee for Churches Affairs in Palestine also condemned the Israeli storming of the mosque and call for international intervention to stop the Israeli escalation.