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Bangladesh investigates Italian aid worker’s killing

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Tavella Cesare shot while jogging in Dhaka in what government authorities say was an apparent “planned murder”.

Nothing was taken from the victim and police ruled out robbery as a motive [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera]

Nothing was taken from the victim and police ruled out robbery as a motive [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

An Italian aid worker living in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka has died after he was shot in an apparent “planned murder”.

Tavella Cesare, 50, was shot three times while jogging at the Gulshan diplomatic zone on Monday night.

A witness told Al Jazeera that he took Cesare to a local hospital, where the victim was pronounced dead.

“It appears to be a planned murder,” Asaduzzaman Khan, Bangladeshi home minister, told the Samakal newspaper.

“Police will also look into whether it was a part of any conspiracy to destabilise Bangladesh.”

Nothing was taken from the victim and police ruled out robbery as a motive.

Mokhlesur Rahman, Dhaka police inspector general (IG), told Al Jazeera that investigators are searching to see if any closed-circuit television cameras captured the incident.

Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian foreign minister, told national news agency Ansa that his office was checking an online claim by a group affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Muntasirul Islam, a police spokesperson, said authorities were also trying to substantiate the purported claim.

Britain’s foreign ministry warned of an increased terrorism risk in the country.

Police in Dhaka said they had no leads in tracing the three unidentified assailants who, riding on a single motorcycle, drove up alongside the victim.

“We have no idea, we can’t say anything definitively for now,” Rahman said, declining to comment on the ISIL claim of responsibility.

“Let the investigation happen.”

Witnesses said the attackers fled the scene after Cesare fell to the ground, according to police.

Cesare was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

His colleague Alo Rani Dhali said Cesare had come to Bangladesh in May to work in the food security sector for a Netherlands-based church cooperative called ICCO.

In a statement dated Monday, ISIL reportedly said a “security detachment” had tracked and killed Cesare with “silenced weapons”, according to the SITE intelligence group’s website.

It warned that “citizens of the crusader coalition” would not be safe in Muslim nations. Almost 90 percent of Bangladesh’s 160 million population practises Islam.

Dhaka police were questioning witnesses including street beggars who allegedly heard the shots and saw the attackers flee, local broadcaster Somoy Television said on Tuesday.

Israeli troops clash with Palestinians at al-Aqsa

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Soldiers storm the mosque compound and fight with Muslim worshippers who have barricaded themselves inside.

al-aqsa

by Al Jazeera

Clashes have erupted for a second day in a row in occupied Jerusalem  after Israeli security forces stormed al-Aqsa Mosque compound and fought with Palestinian worshippers.

Witnesses on the ground told Al Jazeera that the Israeli police entered the mosque shortly before 7am local time (04:00 GMT) on Monday.

Sources told Al Jazeera the officers used al-Maghareba gate to enter the compound.

They reportedly fought with the worshippers, who have barricaded themselves at the mosque.

Sources said at least 15 Palestinians were injured.

Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said clashes continued and tensions “are high” as far-right Jewish groups prepare to enter the mosque compound.

He said several police officers were spotted at the roof of the mosque.

He quoted witnesses as saying that the police fired the stun grenades through windows at a small number of worshippers, and used metal barricades to shield themselves as they approached the mosque’s main gate.

For their part, the worshippers threw stones and hurled fire crackers at the police, the witnesses said.

“The confrontations are relatively minor but they are ongoing,” Al Jazeera’s Tyab said.

The fresh violence occurred on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which began on Sunday evening. During the week-long holiday, many Jews visit Jerusalem.

According to a 50-year long agreement, Jews and people of other religions are allowed to enter the compound between 7:30am and 11:30am local time, but are not allowed to pray.

Palestinian worshippers, however, said that far-right Jews have been provoking them by praying, thus violating the agreement.

Saudi Mufti: Hajj stampede beyond human control

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Top religious leader says authorities not responsible for deadly crush, adding that “fate and destiny are inevitable”.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh told Saudi Arabia's crown prince: "You are not responsible for what happened" [AP]

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh told Saudi Arabia’s crown prince: “You are not responsible for what happened” [AP]

by Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia’s top religious leader has said that the Hajj stampede which killed 717 pilgrims was beyond human control, official media reported on the final day of this year’s pilgrimage.

The stampede was the worst disaster in a quarter-century to strike the annual event and drew fierce criticism of the Saudi authorities’ handling of safety, particularly from regional rival Iran.

“You are not responsible for what happened”, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in a meeting in Mina on Friday, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Saturday.

“As for the things that humans cannot control, you are not blamed for them. Fate and destiny are inevitable,” the sheikh on told the prince, who is also minister of interior.

Bib Nayef chairs the Saudi Hajj committee and has ordered an investigation into Thursday’s stampede during a symbolic “stoning of the devil” ritual by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at Jamarat Bridge in Mina, just outside the holy city of Mecca.

King Salman, whose official title is “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in Mecca and Medina, also ordered “a revision” of how the Hajj is organised.

On Saturday, groups of pilgrims were moving from early morning towards Jamarat Bridge for the last of three stoning days.

The interior ministry has said it assigned 100,000 police to secure the Hajj and manage crowds.

But pilgrims blamed the stampede on police road closures and poor management of the flow of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in searing temperatures.

Abdullah al-Sheikh, chairman of the Shura Council, an appointed body which advises the government, stressed that pilgrims must stick to “the rules and regulations taken by the security personnel… In doing so, they protect their lives, their security and facilitate their performing of the rituals.”

Health Minister Khaled al-Falih earlier made similar remarks that faulted the worshippers.

‘Biased campaigns’

In comments carried late Friday by SPA, the Shura chairman called on citizens and Muslims to ignore “the biased campaigns carried out by the enemies of this pure country, to question the great efforts exerted by the kingdom to serve the holy sites, their construction and expansion, and to serve the visitors and pilgrims.”

Riyadh’s regional rival Iran said 131 of its nationals were among the victims, and on Friday stepped up its criticism of the kingdom, demanding that affected countries have a role in the Saudi investigation into the disaster.

“Saudi Arabia is incapable of organising the pilgrimage,” said Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, leading the main weekly prayers in Tehran.

“The running of the Hajj must be handed over to Islamic states,” he said.

Several African countries confirmed deaths in the stampede, as did India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Netherlands. Moroccan media gave 87 nationals killed.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari urged King Salman “to ensure a comprehensive and thorough exercise that will identify any flaws in Hajj organisation”.

Buhari said his country had lost a prominent journalist, a professor “and others” in the tragedy.

Largely incident-free for nine years after safety improvements, this year’s Hajj was afflicted by double tragedy.

Days before it started, a construction crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site, killing 109 people including many foreigners.

The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, which each of the world’s more than 1.5 billion Muslims is expected to perform.

Deadly blasts hit Yemen mosque during Eid prayers

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At least 25 dead, dozens wounded as two suspected suicide bombers attack Shia mosque in Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

The capital is controlled by Shia Houthis who have driven out Yemen's government [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]

The capital is controlled by Shia Houthis who have driven out Yemen’s government [Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Suicide bombers have struck a mosque in Yemen’s capital in an attack targeting Shia worshippers that killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens, medics and witnesses said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Sanaa has been shaken by a string of bombings by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in recent months targeting Shia Muslims.

Thursday’s blast ripped through the Balili mosque where Houthi Shia rebels who control Sanaa go to pray, according to witnesses. It came as worshippers marked Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the most important holiday of the Islamic calendar.

Witnesses reported that after a first blast inside the mosque, a second suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at the entrance as worshippers rushed outside.

ISIL, a Sunni Muslim group which controls swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, considers Shias to be heretics.

ISIL bomb attacks targeting several Shia mosques in Sanaa on March 21 killed 142 people. The group has also claimed attacks on mosques in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The capital of Sunni-majority Yemen has been under the control of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels for the past year. The Houthis have also expanded their grip to other parts of the country.

Extremists exploit chaos

Pro-government forces backed by air strikes and troops provided by a Saudi-led Arab coalition have recently managed to wrest back some southern provinces, including the second city of Aden.

After six months in exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi returned to Aden on Tuesday with a vow to liberate the country from the Houthis.

The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels on March 26, and began a ground operation in July.

Hadi loyalists began an all-out offensive against the Houthis in the oil-rich Marib province east of Sanaa earlier this month, aiming to retake the capital.

The United Nations says around 5,000 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded, many of them civilians, since late March in Yemen.

Yemen has descended into chaos since the 2012 ouster of longtime strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, and security has broken down since Houthi militiamen swept unopposed into the capital a year ago.

ISIL and the Yemen-based branch of its rival Al-Qaeda have exploited the turmoil to boost their activities in the impoverished country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Qaeda has long been a dominant force in Yemen, located next to oil-flush Saudi Arabia and key shipping lanes, but experts say ISIL is seeking to supplant its rival.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) controls parts of the vast southeastern province of Hadramawt, including the provincial capital Mukalla, which it is seized in April.

It has distanced itself from ISIL’s tactics, saying that it avoids targeting mosques to protect “innocent Muslims”.

More than 450 killed in Hajj stampede

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At least 453 pilgrims killed, more than 700 injured in crush at Mina outside Mecca, Saudi’s civil defence reports.

The stampede occurred in a street between pilgrim camps in Mina [Saudi civil defence handout]

The stampede occurred in a street between pilgrim camps in Mina [Saudi civil defence handout]

by Al Jazeera

At least 453 people have been killed in a stampede at the annual Hajj pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia’s civil defence directorate said, as the death toll continued to rise.

The directorate said at least 719 other pilgrims were injured in Thursday’s stampede, which took place in Mina, on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca.

The injured have been evacuated to four different hospitals in the Mina region, according to a civil defence spokesman.

Mina is where pilgrims carry out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three stone walls. It also houses more than 160,000 tents where pilgrims spend the night during the pilgrimage.

Al Jazeera’s Basma Atassi, reporting from Mina, said the incident took place in a street between pilgrim camps.

“The street where it happened is named Street 204. This stampede did not happen at the site of the ‘stoning of the devil’ ritual, which was happening today.

“During and after the stampede the pilgrims continued to flock into Mina to perform the devil stoning ritual.”

Amateur video shared on social media showed a horrific scene, with scores of bodies – the men dressed in the simple terry cloth garments worn during Hajj – lying alongside crushed wheelchairs and water bottles. The head of the Central Hajj Committee, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, blamed the stampede on “some pilgrims from African nationalities,” Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV channel reported. Survivors assessed the scene by standing on the top of roadside stalls as rescue workers in orange and yellow vests combed the area. About 4,000 people from the rescue services were participating in the operation to help the injured and about 220 ambulances were directed to the scene, a civil defence spokesman said.

Photos released by the defence directorate on its official Twitter account showed rescue workers helping the wounded onto stretchers and loading them onto ambulances near some of the tents.

Al Jazeera’s Omar Alsaleh, reporting from Mecca, said the number of deaths may rise.

“This is only the initial number … The Hajj season was already overshadowed by the crane accident that killed 107 people and wounded more than 200,” Alsaleh said, adding: “The area has turned to a big massive construction site to allow more pilgrims to visit Mecca during Hajj.

“Mina has more than 160,000 tents divided over several camps, and with the 1.9 million people taking part in this year’s Hajj, you will understand the logistical nightmare that the Saudi authorities are facing.”

Deadly Hajj incidents

Saudi authorities take extensive precautions to ensure the security of the Hajj and the safety of pilgrims. But tragedies are not uncommon.

In 2006, more than 360 pilgrims were killed in a stampede, also in Mina.

The day before the 2006 Hajj began, an eight-story building being used as a hostel near the Grand Mosque in Mecca collapsed, killing at least 73 people.

Two years earlier, a crush at Mina killed 244 and injured hundreds on the final day of the pilgrimage.

And, in 2001, a stampede at Mina killed 35 people.

The worst hajj-related tragedy, which happened in 1990, killed 1,426 pilgrims in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mina,+Mecca+Saudi+Arabia/@21.415168,39.887677,10z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x15c2040f36853503:0xd6a3cb46f2b797b4?hl=en-US

Palestinian woman shot, left to bleed by Israeli soldiers

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An image published by Youth Against Settlements shows Hadil Hashlamoun surrounded by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in Hebron.

An image published by Youth Against Settlements shows Hadil Hashlamoun surrounded by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in Hebron.

by Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada

This video posted by the news agency PalMedia shows a young Palestinian woman left to bleed on a sidewalk in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron after she was shot by Israeli soldiers.

Instead of being given immediate medical treatment, the video shows her being pulled roughly out of the frame of the camera, her scarf coming off as her head drags on the ground.

Israeli settlers and soldiers can be seen standing around, and in some cases smiling and laughing in the background.

Wattan TV reported that the young woman was left to bleed for more than 30 minutes.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian man was also killed overnight by Israeli forces near Hebron.

Local sources told Ma’an News Agency that Diyaa Abdulhalim Talahmah, 21, was killed by the army during a raid in the village of Khursa.

Israel has claimed he tried to throw a Molotov cocktail at its soldiers.

These shootings come just days after Israel loosened even further its already lax permission to its forces to use live ammunition against Palestinians.

Checkpoint shooting

Wattan TV named the young woman in the video as 18-year-old Hadil Hashlamoun.

The Israeli army claimed that she was shot after she tried to stab a soldier, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretzreported. But evidence casts serious doubt on this.

An Israeli army spokesperson said that the incident had occurred around 8am at the so-called Container Checkpoint near Shuhada Street, Ma’an News Agency reported.

The spokesperson said the woman approached the checkpoint in order to carry out the attack and Israeli forces responded with gunfire.

The army said that the young woman was treated on site by Israeli medics and then taken to hospital.

Her father, Saleh Hashlamoun, told Wattan TV that his daughter had been hit in the abdomen several times and was in serious but stable condition at Shaare Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem.

No weapon

The Hebron-based group Youth Against Settlements published several photos on its Facebook page that it says show the young woman immediately before and after the shooting.

The photos show a person dressed in a long black dress and headcovering, carrying a brief case. In none of the images is she holding any sort of weapon.

Several Israeli personnel are pointing weapons at her.

Youth Against Settlements suggests the photo sequence shows that Hashlamoun tried to leave the checkpoint before she was shot.

An image published by Youth Against Settlements shows Hadil Hashlamoun lying injured.

Other photos show the person lying on the ground with at least one bullet wound, the same brief case visible near her.

No Israeli soldiers were injured and the army did not release photographs of a knife, as they have done on several recent occasions, Ma’an notes.

Additional photos show the scene of the shooting, including blood on the ground and bullet holes in a metal door, after the victim was removed.

Unverified claims

While Palestinians undoubtedly have an internationally recognized right to resist Israeli military occupation, the unverified claims of the army should not be taken for granted as accurate.

Similar claims have habitually turned out to be false when independent evidence has been available.

In July, a video revealed that 17-year-old Muhammad Ali al-Kasbeh was shot dead by Israeli colonel Yisrael Shomer as he ran away, near Ramallah.

This falsified the army’s version that the Israeli had been in imminent danger when he fired.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem warned that the high-level backing Shomer received would only reinforce an “unlawful message” to occupation soldiers that they are “allowed and even encouraged to shoot to kill a Palestinian stonethrower, even if he’s running away and does not constitute a danger.”

In December 2012, Israeli Border Police officer Nofar Mizrahi claimed she shot dead 17-year-old Muhammad al-Salaymeh at a checkpoint in Hebron as the teen held a pistol to another soldier’s temple.

A video proved Mizrahi’s account to be a lie.

In May 2014, video caught Israeli soldiers shooting dead two teens in the West Bank village of Beitunia at long distance and in cold blood.

In July 2014, Israeli police spread false rumors that 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khudair had been murdered by his family in an “honor killing” for being gay.

Police later arrested several Israeli Jews in the abduction and burning to death of the youth, which occurred at a time of intense anti-Palestinian incitement in Jerusalem.

The systematic impunity Israel affords its occupation personnel and settlers means that Israeli claims are almost never seriously investigated and Palestinians have no recourse for protection or justice.

Temporary truce begins in four Syrian towns

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Ceasefire begins in rebel-held towns of Zabadani and Madaya outside Damascus and regime-held Fouaa and Kafraya in Idlib.

Rebels attack regime forces in Idlib's Fouaa and Kafraya villages. Previous truces in the towns did not hold [Anadolu Agency/Getty Images]

Rebels attack regime forces in Idlib’s Fouaa and Kafraya villages. Previous truces in the towns did not hold [Anadolu Agency/Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

A new temporary truce has begun between pro-government and opposition forces in four Syrian towns, a group that monitors the Syrian conflict has reported.

Sunday’s ceasefire began in the rebel-held towns of Zabadani and Madaya outside the capital, Damascus, and the regime-held Shia villages of Fouaa and Kafraya in the northwestern province of Idlib near the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Last month, two truces in the four towns did not hold. It is not clear how long the new truce will last or who brokered it.

The UK-based observatory said that hours before the start of the truce, a coalition of rebels led by al-Nusra Front seized parts of Fouaa after fierce fighting against pro-government militias backed by the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement.

At least 74 rebels and 40 pro-regime fighters have been killed in the area since rebel forces on Wednesday launched a large-scale attack on Fouaa and Kafraya, the last remaining regime strongholds in Idlib.

Most of the province has fallen in recent months to the rebels.

Zabadani and Madaya are among the rebels’ last strongholds near Syria’s border with Lebanon.

Syrian government troops and allied Hezbollah fighters have been besieging the two mountain towns since July.

The possibility that hardline Sunni rebels, who view Shia Muslims as heretics, would be able to overrun Fouaa and Kafraya appears to have persuaded the Syrian regime and Hezbollah to slow down their bid to recapture Zabadani and Madaya.

Trained rebel fighters

Meanwhile, the observatory reported that 75 rebel fighters trained by US, British and Turkish forces had entered Syria on Friday night and Saturday morning.

The fighters are thought to be part of a planned US-backed force aimed at fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

The initial US programme, signed off by Congress a year ago, set aside $500m and aimed to train some 5,000 rebel fighters.

But the programme has suffered a series of setbacks, including reported defections by trainees unhappy at instructions that they should fight only ISIL and not government forces.

An initial group of 54 fighters came under attack by Nusra Front after entering Syria in late July, according to the Observatory.

On Wednesday, US Central Command chief General Lloyd Austin admitted that only four or five of the US-trained fighters were operating inside Syria.

 

Pakistani Taliban storms airbase near Peshawar

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At least 21 security officers among 43 dead in firefight after attack by fighters on military barracks and mosque.

Ambulances took about 20 wounded military personnel to hospital after Friday's attack, officials said [Reuters]

Ambulances took about 20 wounded military personnel to hospital after Friday’s attack, officials said [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Fighters belonging to the Pakistani Taliban have stormed an air force station near Peshawar in Pakistan’s northwest, resulting in a firefight with security forces and the deaths of at least 43 people, sources say.

ISPR, the Pakistan military’s media wing, said at least 21 security officers and five civilians working at the Badaber Air Force base died and 14 fighters were killed in Friday morning’s gun battle.

The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Taliban, claimed responsibility for the raid at the facility, located on the edge of Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

An army captain and two guards were among the dead, according to the military and a local hospital that received the bodies, and at least 10 soldiers were wounded.

It was unclear if any of the attackers got away. Details about how they managed to make their way into a mosque inside the compound walls and kill worshippers during prayers were sketchy.

Ambulances took around 20 wounded military personnel to hospital, Bilal Ahmed, a rescue official, told Reuters news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johnston, reporting from Peshawar, said Friday’s assault was the first major attack conducted by the Pakistani Taliban since the Peshawar school massacre in December.

“Having said that, there have been warnings of a major attack to come … At the stage we don’t know if the 16 killed in the attack on the mosque are civilians or military personnel,” she said.

The assault came as the Pakistan army was carrying out a major operation against local and foreign fighters in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Major-General Asim Saleem Bajwa, an army spokesman, said the attackers entered the base from different directions in a two-pronged assault – apparently one push targeted the mosque – but security forces quickly responded.

The airbase – established in the 1960s – was not functional and it was mostly being used as a residential place for the employees and officers of the air force, reports said.

Soldiers wounded

In statements posted on Twitter, Bajwa said Pakistan’s army chief, General Raheel Sharif, rushed to Peshawar to meet the security forces taking part in the clearing operation.

He said Sharif would visit a military hospital where doctors were treating wounded soldiers.

A military official at the airbase, who asked not to be identified, said the attackers opened fire on security guards as they tried to fight their way into the facility.

“All the terrorists were wearing explosives-laden jackets and were armed with hand-propelled grenades, mortars, AK-47 rifles,” the official told Reuters.

“The Quick Response Force of the Pakistan army immediately responded and killed six terrorists before they could enter.”

Mohamad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement to the media, he said the fighters gave safe exit to women and children after attacking the base.

He said the group targeted 50 security forces, but the claim could not be confirmed by government or military sources.

Shortly after the attack, a suspected US drone strike hit a home in the South Waziristan tribal region, south of Peshawar, killing at least three fighters and wounding five, according to two Pakistani security officials.

The number of attacks in Pakistan has fallen around 70 percent this year, due to a combination of a military offensive against Taliban bases along the Afghan border and government initiatives to tackle violence.

That follows a massacre at a military-run school last December that killed around 150 people, almost all of them children.

The Pakistani Taliban said it gave safe exit to women and children after attacking the airbase outside Peshawar [EPA]

Saudi Arabia suspends work of Mecca crane collapse firm

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Construction by Bin Laden Group halted after collapse left more than 100 pilgrims dead at Islam’s holiest site.

collapse Mecca Grand Mosque

by Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia has suspended the Saudi Bin Laden Group from taking on new projects, just days after a deadly crane collapse in Mecca.

A statement by the Saudi government on Tuesday said the company’s operations had been stopped until a review of all their work had been completed.

The Saudi Bin Laden group is one of the region’s largest construction firms with contracts across the country.

Initial investigations by Saudi authorities suggested a “balance issue” in the crane and bad weather contributed to the tragedy that left at least 107 people dead and hundreds more injured at Islam’s holiest site immediately prior to the start of the Hajj.

Al Jazeera’s Omar al-Saleh, reporting from Mecca, said the move was “very significant”.

“The Mecca incident brought everything up to the surface, you can sense there were issues beneath the table,” Saleh said.

“There is an indication that the construction firm misused the manufacturers instructions, an indication perhaps of negligence.”

The Hajj, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, has been prone to disasters in the past, mainly from stampedes as pilgrims rush to complete rituals and return home.

Hundreds of pilgrims died in such a crush in 2006.

Saudi authorities have since spent vast sums to expand the main Hajj sites and improve Mecca’s transport system, in an effort to prevent more disasters.

Israeli police storm Al-Aqsa Mosque for a third day

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Clashes erupt after Israeli police raid mosque’s courtyards to support tours for Jewish activists.

Israeli police storm Al-Aqsa Mosque

by Al Jazeera

Palestinians and Israeli forces have clashed at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque for a third straight day, as Israeli forces were seen on the roof of the holy site.

Suleiman Ahmad, the president of Jerusalem’s Affairs Department, who was at the scene, told Al Jazeera that at least 36 Palestinians were injured in the clashes early on Tuesday.

“They have placed snipers on the rooftops and are using rubber bullets,” Ahmad said.

The site of the mosque is revered as holy by Jews and Muslims and is a frequent flashpoint of violence.

Palestinians inside Al-Aqsa threw stones and fireworks at the Israeli forces and set up barricades to prevent them from closing the entrance to the mosque.

The police forces eventually closed the doors to the mosque with the Palestinians still inside.

Al-Aqsa courtyard tours

Israeli police were trying to allow Jewish activists to tour the courtyards of the mosque, which in the past has stirred angry reactions from Palestinians who fear Israel may change the rules for visiting the Al-Aqsa compound.

Yousef Mukhaimar, the head of the Al-Aqsa worshiper movement, Murabitoun, told Al Jazeera that Muslim Palestinians were “prohibited from entering the mosque to pray, while Israeli settlers are allowed to enter the mosque and roam around freely under police protection”.

“Wide areas of the mosque carpeting have been burnt as a result of the Israeli police firing bombs, bullets and tear gas canisters inside the mosque compound,” Mukhaimar said.

“Netanyahu’s strategy is fulfilling his promises to his right-wing and extremist supporters to eventually demolish Al-Aqsa and build their alleged temple in its place.”

Azzam Khatib, director of endowments and Al-Aqsa Mosque affairs, told Al Jazeera that the violence at the site was worse than in previous days.

“Because of the Palestinians who were present inside the mosque, Israeli police faced trouble storming it around 7:30am this morning. Police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades,” Khatib said.

“There was a small fire caused by the stun grenades; all who are present here have extinguished the fire, which took place at the entrance of the mosque.”

Abdel Aziz al-Abasi, another Mourabitoun member, said Israeli police have sealed off the compound.

“The bigger problem here is that the Israelis are trying to establish a precedent by dividing Al-Aqsa Mosque compound into sections and time segments, so they can give Israeli settlers access to our mosque,” Abasi told Al Jazeera.

“We will never agree to such plan because it is obvious that the Israelis are trying to take it over piecemeal.”

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