Palestinian rioters on Temple Mount hurl rocks at Tisha Be’Av

Tens of thousands of Jews gathered at the Kotel (Western Wall) Sunday, the 9th Day of the month of Av, the annual day of mourning, fast and lamentation for the destruction of the First and Second Temples. Overhead, on Temple Mount, masked Muslim rioters had stored a supply of rocks, bottle bombs, fire crackers overnight in Al Aqsa mosque, for hurling at police guards as they arrived to secure visitors, pilgrims and worshippers at the Kotel from attack. They fastened the heavy doors of the mosque open. The police, under a hail of flying objects and a streams of an unidentified liquid, reacted to the disturbance by driving the rioters into the mosque and shutting the heavy doors.  The Tisha Be’Av day of mourning is traditionally solemnized in public events across the country and the Jewish world at large.