Violence
Dhaka's zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, violence against religious minorities highlighted in London Conf
Bangladesh has highlighted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s zero-tolerance policy on discrimination or violence against religious minorities as it attended the '2022 International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief' in London.
State Minister for Religious Affairs Mohammed Faridul Haque Khan delivered the country statement at the conference hosted by the UK government on July 5-6, according to Bangladesh High Commission in London.
In 1971, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman founded a democratic and secular people’s republic, the spirit of which was destroyed by the communal forces following the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975, said the State Minister.
Also read: Remain cautious about US to protect Bangladesh's RMG: Chinese envoy
1/6 panel probes Trump pressure on Pence to reject election
The 1/6 committee is set to plunge into Donald Trump’s last-ditch effort to salvage the 2020 election by pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the electoral count — a highly unusual and potentially illegal strategy that was set in motion in the run-up to the U.S. Capitol riot.
With two live witnesses Thursday, the House panel intends to show how Trump’s false claims of a fraudulent election left him grasping for alternatives as courts turned back dozens of lawsuits challenging the vote.
Trump latched onto conservative law professor John Eastman’s obscure plan and launched a public and private pressure campaign on Pence days before the vice president was to preside over the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. A federal judge has said it is “more likely than not” Trump committed crimes over the scheme.
“The illegality of the plan was obvious,” the Jan. 6 panel said in a court filing against Eastman.
The committee will hear from Greg Jacob, the vice president’s counsel who fended off Eastman’s ideas for Pence to carry out the plan; and retired federal judge Michael Luttig, who called the plan from Eastman, his former law clerk, “incorrect at every turn.”
Thursday’s session is also expected to divulge new evidence about the danger Pence faced that day as the mob stormed the Capitol shouting “hang Mike Pence!” with a gallows on the Capitol grounds as the vice president fled with senators into hiding. Nine people died in the riot and its aftermath.
The session is expected to show how Trump’s pressure on Pence “directly contributed” to the attack on the Capitol and how the Eastman strategy posed a “grave, grave threat” to democracy, according to a committee aide who insisted on anonymity to discuss the upcoming hearing.
Ahead of the hearing, Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, said his boss was determined to stay at the Capitol that night and finish the job, despite the threats.
“He knew his job was to stay at his post,” Short said on CNN on Wednesday.
Short said Pence didn’t want the world seeing the vice president leaving the Capitol when “a hallmark of democracy” was under siege.
Read: 1/6 panel: Told repeatedly he lost, Trump refused to go
“He thought it was important that he stay there and make sure the work of the American people was completed that night,” said Short, who testified under subpoena to the committee for eight hours, but has not yet appeared as a live witness.
The panel is reconvening for a third hearing this month after a blockbuster prime-time start last week, followed by logistical setbacks in recent days. Monday’s key witness, former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, abruptly declined to appear in person because his wife was in labor with their child. Wednesday’s scheduled hearing with witnesses from the Justice Department who tried to convince Trump that his claims of voter fraud were just not true was postponed.
Nevertheless, the panel’s yearlong investigation is portraying a publicly gripping account of Trump’s final weeks in office as the defeated president clung to “the big lie” of a rigged election even as those around him — his family, his top aides, officials at the highest levels of government — were telling him he simply lost the election.
Former Attorney General William Barr, who resigned at the end of 2020 rather than be part of Trump’s plans, testified earlier that the president was becoming “detached from reality” if he believed the lies. He said he told the president his claims of voter fraud were “bull-—.”
With 1,000 interviews and reams of 140,000 documents, the committee is connecting the dots, showing how Trump’s false claims of election fraud became a battle cry as he summoned thousands of Americans to Washington for a Jan. 6 rally and then sent them to Capitol Hill to “fight like hell” for his presidency.
More than 800 people have been arrested in the Capitol siege, and the panel is considering whether to send a referral for criminal charges against Trump to the Justice Department. No president or former president has ever been indicted by the Justice Department, and Attorney General Merrick Garland has said he and his team are following the proceedings in Congress.
For now, the panel is pressing ahead with its hearings, with more scheduled for next week.
Thursday’s will unpack the Eastman plan to have the states send alternative slates of electors from the five or seven states Trump was disputing, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. With competing slates for Trump or Biden, Pence would be forced to reject them, returning them to the states to sort it out, under the plan.
Read: Capitol riot panel blames Trump for 1/6 'attempted coup'
Pence refused the plan, believing the founding fathers would not have left it to one person, the vice president, to decide the outcome, Jacob told the panel in previous testimony. Jacob said the idea was utterly against some 130 years of precedent in American history, “entirely made up.”
The committee in hearings ahead will be delving into the roles of extremist groups and others who heeded Trump’s call to Washington. Leaders and others from the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys face rare sedition charges over their roles in the Capitol attack.
Several members of Congress are also under scrutiny, including Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., whom the committee has asked for an interview to discuss a Capitol tour he gave that included basement tunnels to a group of people the day before the attack.
The panel is also probing several candidates for elected office, including the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, who were among the rioters.
The panel, which is expected to deliver a final report on its findings later this year, intends for its work to be a record for history of the most violent attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812. Unlike other national traumas that have pulled the country together, the Jan. 6 Capitol attack appears to have left many Americans divided. Congress splintered over forming the committee, which most Republicans opposed.
The panel’s two Republicans, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, have been shunned by the GOP for their work with Democrats leading the investigation into Trump and his role in the Capitol attack.
4th grade Uvalde survivor: ‘I don’t want it to happen again’
An 11-year-old girl who survived the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, recounted in video testimony to Congress on Wednesday how she covered herself with a dead classmate’s blood to avoid being shot and “just stayed quiet.”
Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grader at Robb Elementary School, told lawmakers in a prerecorded video that she watched a teacher get shot in the head before looking for a place to hide.
“I thought he would come back so I covered myself with blood,” Miah told the House panel. “I put it all over me and I just stayed quiet.” She called 911 using the deceased teacher’s phone and pleaded for help.
Nineteen children and two teachers died when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle inside Robb Elementary School on May 24.
It was the second day lawmakers heard wrenching testimony on the nation’s gun violence. On Tuesday, a Senate panel heard from the son of an 86-year-old woman killed when a gunman opened fire in a racist attack on Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, on May 14. Ten people died.
In the video Wednesday, Miah’s father, Miguel Cerrillo, asked his daughter if she feels safe at school anymore. She shook her head no.
“Why?” he asks. “I don’t want it to happen again,” she responds.
The testimony at the House Oversight Committee came as lawmakers work to strike a bipartisan agreement on gun safety measures in the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings.
Read: Texas elementary school shooting: What do we know so far?
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the panel’s chairwoman, called the hearing to focus on the human impact of gun violence and the urgency for gun control legislation.
“I am asking every member of this committee to listen with an open heart to the brave witnesses who have come forward to tell their stories about how gun violence has impacted their lives,” Maloney said. “Our witnesses today have endured pain and loss. Yet they are displaying incredible courage by coming here to ask us to do our jobs.”
But even as some lawmakers shed tears alongside the witnesses, the hearing displayed the contentious debate over gun control Congress has faced repeatedly after mass shootings. Several Republicans turned the conversation to the individuals who abuse guns and how “hardening schools” could help protect students.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., who owns a gun store, said that one of the things he learned in his military service was that “the harder the target you are, the less likely you will be engaged by the enemy.” He
called on schools to keep doors locked, provide a single point of entry and “a volunteer force of well-trained and armed staff, in addition to a school resource officer.”
The parents of victims and survivors implored lawmakers not to let their children’s deaths and pain be in vain. After Miah spoke, her father told lawmakers that he testified because “I could have lost my baby girl.”
“But she is not the same little girl that I use to play with,” Cerrillo said. “Schools are not safe anymore. Something needs to really change.”
Also testifying was Zeneta Everhart, whose 20-year-old son Zaire was wounded in the Buffalo mass shooting.
Everhart told lawmakers it was their duty to draft legislation that protects Zaire and other Americans. She said that if they did not find the testimony moving enough to act on gun laws, they had an invitation to go to her home to help her clean her son’s wounds.
“My son Zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, two on his back, and another on his left leg,” she said, then paused to compose herself. “As I clean his wounds, I can feel pieces of that bullet in his back. Shrapnel will be left inside of his body for the rest of his life. Now I want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children.”
The parents of Lexi Rubio, who died in her classroom in Uvalde, also testified. Felix and Kimberly Rubio recounted finding out about their daughter’s death hours after leaving Lexi’s school awards ceremony where she had been recognized as an A-student. To celebrate, they had promised to get her ice cream.
To get to the elementary school after the shooting, Kimberly Rubio said she ran barefoot for a mile with her sandals in her hand and with her husband by her side. A firefighter eventually gave them a ride back to the civic center.
“Soon after we received the news that our daughter was among the 19 students and two teachers that died as a result of gun violence,” she said, fighting through tears.
She said that Lexi would have made a positive change in the world if she had been given the chance.
“Somewhere out there, there’s a mom listening to our testimony, thinking I can’t even imagine their pain, not knowing that our reality will one day be hers unless we act now,” Kimberly Rubio said.
Dr. Roy Guerrero described in stark terms the carnage he witnessed at the local hospital as he tried to treat the injured. He went to the area of the hospital where two dead children had been taken. The bodies were so pulverized, he said, “that the only clue to their identities was the blood-splattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them, clinging for life and finding none.”
Read: Texas police: School door shut but didn’t lock before attack
After the hearing was over, the Democratic-led House passed legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle and prohibit the sale of ammunition magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds.
But the legislation has almost no chance of becoming law as the Senate pursues negotiations focused on improving mental health programs, bolstering school security and enhancing background checks. The House bill does allow Democratic lawmakers a chance to frame for voters in November where they stand on policies that polls show appeal to a majority.
Majorities of U.S. adults think mass shootings would occur less often if guns were harder to get, and that schools and other public places have become less safe than they were two decades ago.
Chairwoman Maloney ended the lengthy hearing Wednesday telling the loved ones of the victims and survivors that the committee’s work on this topic will continue. Days after the Uvalde shooting the committee launched an investigation into five leading manufacturers of the semi-automatic weapons used in both the recent shootings.
“Over the last few days, the committee has received information from these companies that is very troubling,” Maloney said. “I also intend to hold a second hearing to hear directly from the gun industry, so they can explain to the American people why they continue to sell the weapons of choice for mass murderers.”
National dialogue on 'Fear of Violence' held
A national dialogue on "Fear of Violence" was held in Dhaka Wednesday.
Policymakers, law enforcers, and representatives from NGOs, INGOs, and youths from different parts of the country were present.
The national dialogue aimed to discuss the situation around fear of violence, how it affects one's daily life, and how to address the situation nationally.
Kashfia Feroz, director (girls' rights) at Plan International Bangladesh, moderated the discussion.
One of the panellists of the discussion Md Muhibuzzaman, additional secretary at the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, said: "The government has taken initiatives and involved women in all of its systems. We are moving towards transformation, sharing gender-defined responsibilities."
Taslima Yesmin, associate professor of law at the University of Dhaka, highlighted the improvement of the Infrastructural system. She said, "We must ensure a rehabilitation system for the victims."MH Tanshen, country representative of the Malala Foundation, said: "We need collaborative space in educational institutes. We need to have quality teachers through proper training. Furthermore, the teaching methods of the teachers need to improve around fear of violence."
Kamrun Nahar, member of Naripokkho, said: "We want freedom; we do not need protection."
She also emphasised involving more youths and government officials in the process of challenging fear of violence.
Maleka Banu, general secretary of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, encouraged the youths to challenge the difficult situations they face. According to her, youths need to come forward and stand up for themselves whenever they face any violence.
Kashfia said: "Not only violence but also the fear of violence is a huge challenge for young people. By eliminating the fear, youths will be able to fully develop their potential."
To build capacity and sensitisation among the youths about challenging and conquering the fear of violence, Plan International Bangladesh and JAAGO Foundation launched a campaign on International Women's Day 2022.
The campaign "Challenging Fear of Violence – Shohingshotar Bhoy ar Noy'' was designed to raise mass awareness among youths in Dhaka, Barishal, Rangpur and Cox's Bazar.Also read: Nationwide youth campaign starts 'challenging fear of violence'
Webinar on sexual, gender-based violence held
Bonhishikha and Women with Disabilities Development Foundation (WDDF) with support from International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW AP) hosted an online discussion session on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) on Monday marking the official launching of the new project named Women Gaining Ground (WGG).
Women Gaining Ground is a new Global South-led five-year project led by CREA, Akili Dada and IWRAW AP in five priority countries- Bangladesh, India, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.
In Bangladesh, it is implemented by three strategic partners: Bonhishikha, WDDF and Naripokkho, said a media release.
Through this project, they aim to eliminate sexual and gender-based violence by supporting the leadership, decision-making, and political participation of young women, women with disabilities, and other marginalized communities.
Representatives from the consortium partners, embassies in Bangladesh, UN bodies, stakeholders, development partners, and project partners and participants were present during the event.
The event started with a brief presentation on the Women Gaining Ground project by Samina Yasmin, Programmes Coordinator of Bonhishikha.
Mushfiqua Satiar, Senior Policy Adviser -SRHR and Gender, Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangladesh, delivered welcome remarks.
It was followed by speeches by Audrey Lee from IWRAW AP and Babita Sinha from CREA.
READ: Gender-based violence: Media must be more responsible
Ashrafun Nahar Misti, Executive Director of WDDF gave a presentation on the current state of SGVB on women with disabilities in the workplace where she discussed how these women face multifold discrimination and violence for their disabilities at home and in their workplace.
Another keynote speaker, Taslima Yasmin, Associate Professor, Department of Law, Dhaka University reflected on the current legal provisions and gaps in dealing with SGBV issues in workplaces.
She emphasized on how the laws and policies are still archaic and are not always applicable to address such issues.
The last keynote speaker was Tasaffy Hossain, Founder and Managing Partner of Bonhishikha, who talked about how we would address SGBV through WGG project to reach their objectives.
Nasima Begum, President of National Council of Disabled Women and newly elected Union Parishad Member of Mithapukur in Rangpur, delivered the closing remarks urging all to continue the conversation and collaboration to ensure everyone’s equal rights and access.
Over 59 million internally displaced in 2021
A record 59.1 million people were displaced within their homelands last year, 4 million more than in 2020, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Thursday.
For the past 15 years, most internal displacements were triggered by disasters, with annual numbers slightly higher than those related to conflict and violence.
Weather-related events such as floods, storms and cyclones resulted in some 23.7 million internal displacements in 2021, mainly in Asia Pacific.
With the expected impacts of climate change, and without ambitious climate action, numbers are likely to increase in the coming years, the IOM said.
Meanwhile, conflict and violence triggered 14.4 million internal displacements in 2021, a nearly 50 percent increase over the previous year.
The majority took place in Africa, particularly Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while Afghanistan and Myanmar saw unprecedented numbers of displacement.
Children and youth accounted for more than 40 percent of the total number of those internally displaced last year.
Also read: Ukraine war refugees top 5 million as assault intensifies
Sri Lankan authorities urged to prevent further violence, find meaningful dialogue
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday called on the authorities in Sri Lanka to prevent further violence, and urged restraint and meaningful dialogue to address the grievances of the population amid the severe economic crisis in the country.
“I am deeply troubled by the escalation of violence in Sri Lanka after supporters of the Prime Minister attacked peaceful protestors in Colombo yesterday 9 May and the subsequent mob violence against members of the ruling party,” Bachelet said.
Also read: India vows to support Sri Lanka's stability
Seven people have died during the incidents - including a Member of Parliament and two local officials, over 250 were injured, and the properties of others were destroyed by arson throughout the country, according to a message received here from Geneva.
“I condemn all violence and call on the authorities to independently, thoroughly and transparently investigate all attacks that have occurred. It is crucial to ensure that those found responsible, including those inciting or organising violence, are held to account.”
The High Commissioner also called on the authorities to prevent further violence and to protect the right to peaceful assembly.
“Authorities, including military personnel deployed in support of security forces, should exercise restraint in policing the situation and ensure that measures adopted in the context of the state of emergency comply with international human rights norms and are not used to stifle dissent or hinder peaceful protest,” she stressed.
The State has a responsibility to ensure the right to life and to exercise due diligence to protect the lives of individuals against violence by private individuals or entities.
The severe economic crisis has made daily life a struggle for most Sri Lankans. It has also highlighted grievances, which require national dialogue and deeper structural reforms, Bachelet said. It has brought together people from various ethnicities and religions to demand greater transparency, accountability and participation in democratic life.
“I urge the Sri Lankan Government to engage in meaningful dialogue with all parts of society to find a pathway forward and address the socio-economic challenges people, especially vulnerable and marginalized groups, are facing. I call on the Government to address the broader political and systemic root causes that have long perpetuated discrimination and undermined human rights.”
Also read: Sri Lanka anti-government protests continue despite curfew
Bachelet said the UN Human Rights Office will continue to closely watch and report on the situation in the country. She expressed hope that Sri Lanka would find a peaceful solution to the current crisis to alleviate people’s suffering, strengthen democracy and human rights, and prevent further violence.
Police out to hush up its failure, BCL’s involvement in New Market violence: Fakhrul
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday alleged that police are trying to hush up its failure and indifference to contain violence in the city’s New Market area and the involvement of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) in it.
“BNP thinks that this illegitimate government is resorting to its old game. While people are blaming police inaction and indifference for not being able to stop the clashes for two days in a row, the police are trying to cover up their own failures and Awami cadres’ involvement by arresting innocent BNP leader Makbul and filing cases against others purely with a political motive,” he said.
Speaking at a press conference at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office, the BNP leader also said their party is deeply concerned and upset over the series of clashes between traders and Dhaka College students in the New Market area that killed two people and injured many others, including journalists.
“This incident has exposed how fragile the law and order situation in the country is. A suspicion has been created in public minds over the inaction of police as horrific attacks and counter-attacks happened and terrorists wearing helmets and equipped with arms and weapons beat people to death in their (police’s) presence,” he said.
Fakhrul alleged that cases were filed against 1,200 people mentioning the names of 24 leaders of BNP and its associate bodies instead of arresting the real offenders who engaged in the clashes wearing helmets. “BNP strongly protest and express anger ovet it.”
He said it has been proved through different media reports that the ‘cadres’ of Chhatra League were involved in the violence. “At least three people--who are active activists of Dhaka College Chhatra League--have been identified from the video footages. It is also clear from the media reports that the terrible terrorists of various groups of Chhatra League were responsible for this incident mainly due to collect extortion and establish their supremacy.”
The BNP leader also said the ruling party student body leaders have long been indulging in massive extortion and terrorist activities in the adjoining areas of New Market. “Chhatra League and Juba League are establishing a reign of terror with the help of police. This entire area is under the control of Chhatra League.”
READ: Chhatra League 'cadres' involved in New Market violence: Fakhrul
Stating that there are many groups of Dhaka College Chhatra League in the area in absence of any specific committee of the ruling party student body, he said the incident of clashes often occurs there due to conflicts among those groups.
Fakhrul said their party thinks that the government is deliberately implicating BNP in New Market violence to divert people’s attention to a different direction from its failure to deliver on all fronts, control soaring prices of daily essentials and rampant corruption.
“The government is conspiring to arrest BNP leaders and activists in the same way as before. Lawsuits, arrests, enforced disappearances, murders and assassinations are the main weapons of this government and it is trying to keep BNP away from politics by using these weapons,” he alleged.
The BNP leader said the present ‘unelected’ Awami League government has taken a stance against the country’s people by using all the state machineries to stay in power illegally for the last one decade.
“There is now no security in people's lives and no business environment. The judiciary has been politicised while corruption has been institutionalised. Human rights are being grossly violated. A fascist state system has been established by enacting repressive laws one after another in violation of the constitution,” he observed.
He said BNP will stage rallies in all metropolitan cities, including in the capital, on April 26 demanding the release of arrested BNP leader Makbul Hossain and withdrawal of false cases filed by police in connection with the bloody violence in the city’s New Market area.
At least 40 people were injured as a group of Dhaka College students and shopkeepers in the New Market area fought pitched battles Tuesday following a brawl at a fast food shop on Monday night.
Later, two injured people—computer accessories delivery man Nahid Hasan and shop employee Morsalin--died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Tuesday and early Thursday.
Four cases were filed in connection with the violence while police on Friday arrested former New Market thana BNP President Makbul Hossain in one of the cases on charges of obstructing police in performing duties, assaulting law enforcement officers, and damaging property during the clashes.
Palestinians clash with Israeli police at major holy site
Palestinians clashed with Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Friday as thousands gathered for prayers during the holy month of Ramadan. Medics said more than 150 Palestinians were wounded in the most serious violence at the site in nearly a year.
The holy site, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims, has often been the epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian unrest, and tensions were already heightened amid a recent wave of violence. Clashes at the site last year helped spark an 11-day war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
The clashes come at a particularly sensitive time. Ramadan this year coincides with Passover, a major weeklong Jewish holiday beginning Friday at sundown, and Christian holy week, which culminates on Easter Sunday. The holidays are expected to bring tens of thousands of faithful into Jerusalem’s Old City, home to major sites sacred to all three religions.
Hours after the clashes began, the police said they had put an end to the violence and arrested “hundreds” of suspects. The mosque was re-opened, and some 60,000 people attended the main Friday prayers midday, according to the Waqf, the Islamic endowment that administers the site.
Also read: Palestinian killed, 31 injured by Israeli soldiers in WB
After prayers, thousands of Palestinians marched around the esplanade, chanting “with our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Al-Aqsa,” in addition to slogans in support of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza.
Less than a kilometer (mile) away, thousands of Christians marched in a procession retracing the traditional journey of Jesus to the cross in honor of Good Friday. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was open to visitors, who are returning to the Holy Land in large numbers for the first time since before the pandemic. The violence was confined to the mosque compound.
Israeli authorities said that before the unrest broke out they had negotiated with Muslim leaders to try to ensure calm. But the police say Palestinians stockpiled rocks and other objects inside the compound and hurled stones at the Mughrabi Gate, which leads to the Western Wall — a major Jewish holy site — triggering the violence.
Palestinian witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said a small group of Palestinians threw rocks at police, who then entered the compound in force, setting off a wider conflagration. Palestinians view any large deployment of police at Al-Aqsa as a provocation.
Palestinians threw rocks and fireworks, and police fired tear gas and stun grenades on the sprawling esplanade surrounding the mosque. Dozens of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the mosque as they fought Israeli security forces.
Israeli police later entered the mosque and arrested people inside. The police rarely enter the building, which is seen by Palestinians as an escalation.
The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said it treated 152 people, many of them wounded by rubber-coated bullets or stun grenades.
Video footage showed police beating a photographer for the Waqf with batons before knocking him to ground and kicking him. The Waqf said the photographer, Rami Khatib, suffered a broken hand. There was no immediate comment from police.
The Israeli police said three officers were wounded from “massive stone-throwing,” with two evacuated from the scene for treatment.
Neighboring Jordan, which has custodianship over the holy site, and the Palestinian Authority issued a joint statement accusing Israel of “a dangerous and condemnable escalation that threatens to explode the situation.” Egypt also condemned the “Israeli raid.”
Israel’s public security minister, Omer Barlev, who oversees the police force, said Israel had “no interest” in violence at the holy site but that police were forced to confront “violent elements” who attacked them with stones and metal bars. He said Israel was committed to freedom of worship for Jews and Muslims alike.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said authorities “are working to calm things on the Temple Mount and throughout Israel. At the same time, we are prepared for any scenario.”
The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. It is built on a hilltop in Jerusalem’s Old City that is the most sacred site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the site of the Jewish temples in antiquity. It has been a major flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence for decades and was the epicenter of the 2000-2005 Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city to be the capital of a future state including the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel also captured during the war nearly 55 years ago.
Tensions have soared in recent weeks following a series of attacks by Palestinians that killed 14 people inside Israel. Israeli troops have carried out a wave of arrests and military operations across the occupied West Bank, setting off clashes with Palestinians.
Also read: Palestinians vandalise West Bank shrine as tensions soar
At least 25 Palestinians have been killed, according to an Associated Press count. Many had carried out attacks or were involved in the clashes, but an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appears to have been a bystander were also among those killed.
Weeks of protests and clashes in and around Al-Aqsa during Ramadan last year helped ignite a fourth Gaza war between Israel and Hamas. This year, Israel has lifted restrictions and taken other steps to try and calm tensions, but the attacks and the military raids are fueling another cycle of unrest.
Hamas condemned what it said were “brutal attacks” on worshippers at Al-Aqsa, saying Israel would bear “all the consequences.”
Earlier this week, Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza had called on Palestinians to camp out at the Al-Aqsa mosque over the weekend. Palestinians have long feared that Israel plans to take over the site or partition it.
Israeli authorities say they are committed to maintaining the status quo, but in recent years large groups of nationalist and religious Jews have regularly visited the site with police escorts.
A radical Jewish group recently called on people to bring animals to the site in order to sacrifice them for Passover, offering cash rewards for those who succeeded or even tried. Israeli police work to prevent such activities, but the call was widely circulated by Palestinians on social media, along with calls for Muslims to prevent any sacrifices from taking place.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, issued a statement calling on Muslim leaders to act to stop the violence. He also noted that “bringing a sacrifice to the Temple Mount today is in opposition to the decision of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.”
Violence against women on rise: Report
Some 397 incidents of violence against women and children occurred in the country in March, higher than the previous month, according to a rights group.
The incidents of violence against women and children were 365 across the country in February, said Manabadhikar Shonskritik Foundation (MSF) in its monthly Human Rights Monitoring report on Thursday.
Read: Foundation stone of Bangladesh's first wind power plant laid
According to mass media reports and data collected by MSF, the number of incidents like rape, killing and family violence has increased compared to previous month. This is very concerning, the MSF said in its report.
Among the incidents of violence against women and children, 69 incidents of rape, 23 gang rape, three killing after rape and six physically challenged children and adolescent girls were raped.
Among the 69 rape victims, 53 were children and adolescent, while out of 23 gang rape victims, seven were adolescent.
Besides, some 96 women, including 36 children and adolescent girls committed suicide, up by 29 incidents than February. Some 81 incidents of killing, including eight mysterious deaths occurred in March and among them 27 were children and adolescent girls.
Read: Blogger Ananta killing: 4 sentenced to death
According to media reports, the killings were due to revenge, family feuds, dowry, love affairs, said the report.