Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was seeking calm after last night’s clashes between police and Muslim worshipers at the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem.

“Israel is committed to ensuring freedom of worship, free access for all religions and the status quo and will not allow violent extremists to change that“, it is stated in a Prime Minister’s announcement.

Violent clashes broke out overnight between Israeli police and worshipers inside the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site of worship, raising fears of further escalation of tensions as Ramadan, the Jewish and Christian Easters, coincide this year. .

The Arab League is holding an emergency meeting today at the request of Jordan, the custodian of Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites.

“The extreme approach that governs the policy of the Israeli government will lead to widespread conflicts with the Palestinians, if not reversed,” said the secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed Abu Hait.

Violent clashes broke out overnight between Israeli police and worshipers inside the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site of worship, raising fears of further escalation of tensions amid Ramadan and as Jews prepare to celebrate in Easter.

Israeli police released video showing explosions, possibly fireworks, inside the mosque and figures hurling stones. another video shows members of the special police forces advancing towards the mosque protected by shields. Police announced the arrest of more than 350 people.

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Berlin expressed concern after the clashes and called on “all those who have an influence on the situation (…) to do everything for the return of calm”.

Government spokesman Christopher Burger asked all sides “not to add fuel to the fire».

Jordan, custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem, called on Israeli forces to immediately withdraw from the mosque, while Saudi Arabia said it “categorically rejects” any action that violates “international principles and norms governing respect for religion.”

Egypt, a traditional mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, announced that it considers “Israel, an occupying power, responsible for this dangerous escalation that may undermine the truce efforts.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called “unacceptable” the clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque “in violation of the sacred character” of the place.

“We strongly condemn these attacks,” insisted the minister who was speaking on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

“The normalization of relations with Israel has begun, but our commitment cannot be at the expense of the Palestinian cause and our principles”, he continued, assessing that “these attacks crossed the line».

Denouncing this “unprecedented crime”, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, called on West Bank Palestinians to “go en masse to the Al-Aqsa Islamic mosque to defend it”.