Anadolu Agency's Middle East news editor hurt in Al-Aqsa raid

By Esat Firat and Mustafa Deveci

JERUSALEM (AA) - Anadolu Agency's Middle East News Editor was injured slightly on Friday evening in an attack by the Israeli police on Muslim worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

Turgut Alp Boyraz was shot in the foot with a plastic bullet by Israeli police while he covering the Israeli raid on the mosque's Haram al-Sharif area.

Boyraz received medical on the site.

Israeli police attacked Muslim worshippers late on Friday inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque. At least 53 Palestinians were injured in the clashes inside the Haram al-Sharif area, the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a subsequent statement.

They continued their intervention at regular intervals against the Muslims in the mosque, while worshippers continued to perform Tarawih, special nightly prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara