Riots

There was violence and rioting between muslims and Israeli soldiers this morning in front of our door. shots were fired.

The problem started when several muslim youths refused to leave the Golden Dome mosque in protest against Israel's proclamation to take over of the Patriarchs' tombs in Palestinian land. This morning the youths threw stones at visitors to the mosque. Soldiers entered the mosque and the imam began screaming through the PA system (believe me, it was really loud) on the minarets for muslims to gather and fight. Then chaos took over. All gates to the mosque (one in front of our house) were closed by the soldiers; in fact even the City Gates were immediately closed to anyone entering. Muslims began throwing rocks in the streets especially in front of our house, soldiers fired their weapons, scuffles, arrests. We had to close our monastery doors. The "Antonia Gate" or Ecce Homo Arch is directly next to our monastery doors.

Just now I went out to have a look. Soldiers and muslims of all ages are in confrontation at our door angle, and much more between the 3rd Station and the 5th Station.

There's going to be more trouble. It's much more serious than what the news reports.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=169829
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152809.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8541428.stm
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136232