Worshippers emerging from Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque threw stones at policemen and at Jews praying below at the Jewish shrine known as the Western Wall, according to Israeli police.
Israeli riot-control forces waiting outside the compound — known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary — rushed in to restore order, using stun grenades to disperse the crowd, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
Other Muslim worshippers intervened to try to defuse the clash, and police eventually withdrew in coordination with the Muslim clerics who administer the compound, he said. A small number of light injuries were reported by both sides.
Always tense, the compound has recently seen sporadic clashes linked at least in part to the Israeli government decision to include the West Bank shrines on the heritage site list. The move's practical ramifications are unclear, but Palestinians see it as a provocation.
Najeh Btirat, an official with the Muslim clerical authority that administers the compound, said the clash followed a mosque sermon on the issue.
"The Friday sermon focused on the Islamic sites that are being targeted by Israel and the need to preserve them," he said. About 300 young men threw stones at police after prayers, he said.
Skirmishes also broke out to the south, in the West Bank city of Hebron, after Friday prayers but no serious injuries were reported. A group of about 100 Palestinians protested outside the holy site known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi mosque.
Israel captured both sites, along with the rest of east Jerusalem and the West Bank, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Jerusalem compound is under Israeli security control, but day-to-day administration has been left in the hands of a Muslim clerical body known as the Waqf. Jews are not allowed to pray at the site.
At the Hebron shrine, which has also been a flashpoint for violence in the past, Jews and Muslims worship in different sections of the building.
