Police, worshippers clash at Al Aqsa Mosque

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JERUSALEM -- Israeli riot police stormed a disputed Jerusalem holy site yesterday, firing tear gas, stun grenades and plastic bullets to disperse hundreds of Muslim worshippers who threw stones and shoes at them.

It was the most violent confrontation at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound since deadly clashes there in September 2000 escalated into widespread Palestinian rioting and led to the current round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

Early today, a Palestinian gunman infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the West Bank under the cover of darkness, killing a settler and wounding a girl before soldiers shot him dead, a military source said.

In the earlier violence, thousands of Palestinians barricaded themselves in two mosques in the walled compound for two hours yesterday before police agreed to let them leave. Police did not enter the mosques themselves, but were deployed across the compound.

The clashes came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in published interviews that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah could become targets for assassination. Mr. Sharon's threats were the most explicit yet against his archfoes.

Asked by the Ha'aretz newspaper whether Mr. Arafat and Sheik Nasrallah are targets for assassination, Mr. Sharon said: "I wouldn't suggest that either of them feel immune. ... Anyone who kills a Jew or harms an Israeli citizen, or sends people to kill Jews, is a marked man. Period."

Mr. Arafat "has no insurance policy," he told the Ma'ariv newspaper.

The United States criticized Mr. Sharon's comments.

"Our position on such questions -- the exile or assassination of Yasser Arafat -- is very well known. We are opposed and we have made that very clear to the government of Israel," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in Washington.

Mr. Sharon also said he would order a halt to new construction in Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. He also talked of withdrawing from all of the Gaza settlements and the West Bank settlements of Ganim, Kadim, Homesh and Sanur, revealing the scope of his unilateral "disengagement" plan for the first time. He said the withdrawal would be under way within a year.

The confrontations at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, site of their biblical temples, began after Muslim noon prayers.

Initially, Palestinian youngsters threw stones at police deployed nearby, police said. At the time, several Jews were praying at the nearby Western Wall, which runs alongside the mosque compound. The Western Wall is a remnant of the biblical temples and Judaism's holiest site.

In response to the stoning, hundreds of officers with helmets and plastic shields burst into the walled compound, shooting tear gas, stun grenades and plastic bullets, witnesses said.

The crowd of stone throwers grew to several hundred, and worshippers also threw shoes -- a traditional Middle Eastern sign of disrespect. More than 20 Palestinians were injured, Muslim clerics said, and police said they arrested 14 Palestinians.