Hundreds wounded as Israeli forces attack Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque

JERUSALEM: Hundreds of Palestinians were wounded Monday as Israeli security forces attack Palestinian worshippers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

"There are hundreds of people injured from the clashes" and about 50 of them were hospitalised, the Red Crescent said in a brief statement to journalists.

The injured were evacuated in ambulances that were deployed outside the esplanade, the third holiest site in Islam, located in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

The violence erupted ahead of a planned march to commemorate Israel´s takeover of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War, an anniversary known as Jerusalem Day in the Jewish state.

On Friday night, more than 200 people were hurt in clashes between police and Palestinians on the esplanade where tens of thousands of worshippers had flocked for the last Friday prayers of Ramadan.

On Saturday, clashes in a number of east Jerusalem neighbourhoods left more than 100 people injured, said the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The four members of the Middle East Quartet -- the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- expressed "deep concern" on Saturday over the violence in Jerusalem.