JERUSALEM, May 9, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli police assaulted on Wednesday Palestinians who were trying to prevent staff from the Israeli Nature Authority from desecrating a Muslim cemetery located at the bottom of Jerusalem’s Old City wall outside the closed Golden Gate (Bab al-Rahmeh), one of the gates to al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said the nature authority staff attempted, under police protection, to put up a fence that would enclose part of the cemetery adjacent to the wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound where graves are located prompting officials in charge of the cemetery and families of Palestinians buried there, mainly from Silwan neighborhood, to confront the Israelis and try to stop the takeover of the cemetery ground.

Police used force to remove the Palestinians from the cemetery while assaulting them, bruising Mustafa Abu Zahra, an elderly man who heads the committee responsible for the Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem.

The Israeli Nature Authority started work at the cemetery last week, digging and removing graves in order to build a park at the site.

The cemetery has been there for centuries and has graves of important Muslim leaders.

M.K.