VARIOUS: ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES ON STANDBY FOR VIOLENCE AS PALESTINIANS STAGE STRIKE IN PROTEST AT OPENING OF TOURIST TUNNEL NEAR AL-AQSA MOSQUE

Record ID: 399745

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES ON STANDBY FOR VIOLENCE AS PALESTINIANS STAGE STRIKE IN PROTEST AT OPENING OF TOURIST TUNNEL NEAR AL-AQSA MOSQUE
  • Date: 24th September 1996
  • Summary: JERUSALEM / RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / GAZA CITY / LONDON, ENGLAND (SEPTEMBER 24 AND 25, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (SEPTEMBER 25, 1996) 1. GV HUNDREDS OF BIR ZEIT STUDENTS MARCHING TOWARDS ISRAELI ARMY ROADBLOCK (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. GV STUDENTS MARCHING WITH BOTTLES IN THEIR HANDS 0.13 3. GV STUDENTS THROW
  • Embargoed: 9th October 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM / RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / LONDON, ENGLAND / GAZA CITY, GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: EUROPE West Bank West Bank ASIA Jerusalem Jerusalem England United Kingdom Israel MIDDLE EAST
  • Reuters ID: LVA9OJQC9JCIYAKZ0VE0RKJEQXTC
  • Story Text: INTRO: Israeli troops have wounded 130 Palestinians, five seriously, during protests against the opening of a tourist tunnel near Islam's third holiest shrine in Jerusalem.

    The injuries were caused as soldiers dispersed stone-throwers on Wednesday (September 25) near Ramallah in the West Bank.

    About five hundred students from Bir Zeit university threw stones at soldiers as they marched towards Israel's roadblock at the entrance to Jerusalem.

    Shawqi Harb, director of Ramallah hospital, said most of the Palestinians had wounds caused by rubber bullets although one was wounded by gunfire from an M-16 rifle and some suffered from teargas inhalation and beatings.

    The demonstrations were sparked when Israeli workmen, under cover of night and heavy police guard, punched a second entrance through a stone wall to a tourist tunnel beside Jerusalem's Temple Mount, a site holy to Jews and Moslems, on Tuesday (September 25).

    Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority called on Palestinians in Jerusalem and across the West Bank and Gaza to demonstrate against the opening of the tunnel.

    Palestinians answered the call and largely observed a commercial strike.

    In the old city of Jerusalem, violent scuffles broke out when Israeli police confronted hundreds of Arabs as they started to march inside the Old City walls. Police pushed back demonstrators but no-one was reported to have been hurt.

    The crowd included Palestinian Finance Minister Muhamed Nashashibi and Minister for High Education Hanan Ashrawi.

    In Anata refugee camp in Jerusalem, Palestinians burned tyres and blocked the road with stones. In Gaza City they marched through the streets and burned Israeli flags.

    During a visit to Britain, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his government's decision to open the tunnel.

    He said it would increase the amount of tourists visiting the area and would benefit everyone in Jerusalem, particularly the traders in the Arab quarter of the city.

    The 488-metre-long (500-yard) tunnel, which exposes the Herodian foundations of the Wailing Wall, has been open for some time with only one entry and exit point in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register