Israel to try 17 Palestinians arrested in Al-Aqsa

Israeli authorities will put on trial 17 Palestinians detained from inside East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to a Palestinian lawyer on Wednesday.

“The 17 Palestinians were transferred by Israeli police to court for trial,” Mohamed Mahmoud told Anadolu Agency.

On Tuesday evening, Israeli forces attacked Palestinian Muslim worshippers inside the Al-Aqsa mosque, leaving many of them wounded.

Israeli forces also rounded up 17 people from inside the holy site.

Tuesday’s raid came two days after Israeli police on Sunday briefly shut the Al-Rahma Gate on the eastern wall of Jerusalem’s Old City.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming Jerusalem as the unified capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state.