2009 Al-Aqsa clashes

In 2009, clashes between Muslim Palestinians and Israeli police erupted on September 27, 2009, and continued to late October. Violence spread through East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, and included throwing of Molotov cocktails and stones at Israeli security forces and civilians. Israeli police responded with arrests of rioters and sporadic age-based restriction of access to the Temple Mount. Several dozen rioters, police and Israeli civilians have been injured.

The Al-Aqsa compound sits atop the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, and is also the site of the existing al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, and is the third-holiest site in Islam. Israel gained control of the Mount in 1967 from Jordan, and incorporated it along with the rest of East Jerusalem into its (largely unrecognised) capital of Jerusalem; the Islamic holy sites on the Mount are managed by the Islamic waqf, while Israel is in charge of overall administration. The permanent status of the Temple Mount is generally considered to be determined by future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.