Closure of Al-Aqsa mosque 'declaration of war': Abbas
Israel yesterday ordered the closure of the Al-Aqsa compound to all visitors in an unprecedented move, drawing a furious response from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who described it as "a declaration of war."
Earlier, Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian suspected of an assassination attempt on a hardline campaigner for Jewish prayer rights at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
The attack sent tensions in the city soaring to a new high, following months of almost daily clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in Jerusalem's occupied eastern sector.
"This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation," he said through his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina, warning it would only fuel "more tension and instability."
Meanwhile, a UN human rights watchdog yesterday urged Israel to respect the rights of Palestinians, and demanded the country probe violations committed during repeated assaults on Gaza.
With tensions soaring in East Jerusalem, and months of almost daily clashes, the UN Human Rights Committee yesterday published conclusions from its review earlier this month of Israel's human rights record.
The committee lamented continued punitive demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank, excessive force by the Israel Defence Forces and decried reports of the use of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians, including children, in Israeli detention facilities.
It also slammed the "continuing confiscation and expropriation of Palestinian land and restrictions on access of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem."
The body, which oversees global rules on civil and political rights, and submits governments to regular reviews, also voiced concern over alleged human rights abuses during three Israeli military operations in Gaza since late 2008, including the nearly two-month war this summer that killed nearly 2,200 mainly civilian Palestinians and 73 people in Israel, mostly soldiers.
And it criticised Israel's continuing blockade of Gaza, lamenting that the blockade continues to "negatively impact Palestinians' access to all basic and life-saving services such as food, health, electricity, water and sanitation."
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