A PALESTINIAN man today died of wounds he suffered last month during clashes with Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, said an Israeli hospital.

Walid al-Sharif, 23, was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital with a “head injury” on April 22 and “pronounced dead this morning”, said the hospital in a statement.

His family confirmed his death in an audio message shared with journalists.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem is the third-holiest site in Islam and the most holy site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.

Palestinians are angered by an uptick in Jew visits to the compound, where by longstanding convention Jews may go but are not allowed to pray.

Palestinian news agency Wafa, quoting a family member, said Sharif was shot in the head with “a rubber-coated metal bullet fired by Israeli occupation forces”.

However, a hospital spokesman said there was no sign Sharif was hit by gunfire.

Israeli police said his injury was caused when he fell and hit his head while throwing stones at security forces.

Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at Al-Aqsa in April left nearly 300 people wounded, most of them Palestinians, and killed one Palestinian.

The violence, including in the occupied West Bank, follows a wave of attacks in Israel and raids by the Israeli military.

Anti-Israeli attacks have killed at least 19 people since March 22, including an Arab-Israeli police officer and two Ukrainians.

A total of 32 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs died during the same period, according to an AFP tally, among them perpetrators of attacks and those killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank operations. – AFP, May 14, 2022.