JERUSALEM: After a day of fighting between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the focal points for weeks of bloodshed, a security guard at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank was shot and killed late Friday.

The army stated that the guard was attacked at the Ariel settlement’s entrances and that they were following the “terrorists.”

The Islamist Hamas movement lauded the assassination as a “heroic operation,” with spokesperson Hazem Qassem claiming it was in retaliation to “assaults on Al-Aqsa.”

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 42 people were injured at the shrine, which is revered by Muslims and Jews alike.

In the early hours of Friday, Israeli police released images of young males in the complex flinging stones and pyrotechnics. Officers arrived at the scene early in the morning.

According to a police statement, they entered to apprehend “rioters and lawbreakers,” some of whom were attempting to throw stones at the Western Wall, a revered Jewish shrine under Al-Aqsa.

Officers employed “riot dispersal means” to quell the disorder, and two people were arrested, one for hurling stones and the other for “inciting the mob,” according to police.

Israeli police deployed rubber-coated bullets, according to an AFP journalist, and tear gas, according to a witness.

Following the turmoil around morning prayers, an uncomfortable quiet had been restored inside the complex, but emotions remained high.

A multitude of Muslim worshippers gathered at Al-Aqsa in the early afternoon. According to an AFP journalist, several protesters brandished Palestinian flags and the colours of the Gaza-based Hamas armed group.

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