BLOODY CLASH ERUPTS AT MOSQUE : 3 DEAD, 100 WOUNDED IN MIDEAST.

Byline: Alan Sipress Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Ten thousand worshipers at the Al Aqsa mosque Friday had barely uttered the concluding words ``Peace be upon you'' when the rock-throwing and the gunfire began.

At the third holiest site in Islam, the weekly Friday prayers ended in an eruption that sounded at times like the frantic finale of a fireworks display.

The confrontation between stone-throwing youths and Israeli soldiers lasted barely 25 minutes. But it was time enough to leave three Palestinians dead. More than 100 Palestinian worshipers and 20 Israeli troops were reportedly injured.

Jews call this ancient walled esplanade the Temple Mount, the site of the biblical Holy Temple. Muslims believe it is the site from which the Prophet Mohammed made his journey to heaven. They call it the Haram Al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

But there was no sanctuary Friday from the violence and despair that has swept the occupied territories.

In the hours leading up to the midday prayer, thousands of Israeli reinforcements, outfitted with M-16 assault rifles and bulletproof vests, had marched through the ancient stone gates of East Jerusalem's old city and taken up positions in the cobblestone alleys. They were anticipating another day of trouble.

More than 100 of them crowded onto a short stretch of the Via Dolorosa, where the Israeli government last week opened an undistinguished gray metal doorway into an ancient archeological tunnel that runs beside the Al Aqsa Mosque. That decision outraged Muslim religious sensibilities and became the spark that set fire to the fuel of Arab frustration with the peace process derailed by Israel's hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

About 4,000 Israeli troops were deployed outside the Al Aqsa compound, a graceful campus of centuries-old fountains and domes arrayed amid lawns and groves of evergreens.

Soon after 11:30, the director of Al Aqsa, Sheik Ahmed Hussein, launched into his weekly sermon. He claimed the new tunnel had damaged the foundations of several religious schools affiliated with the mosque - a charge Israeli authorities have denied. He eulogized the 47 Palestinians who had died in the first three days of last week's clashes.

``They stood with their chest against the Israelis who are occupying our land and trying to damage and eliminate our holy sites, especially the Al Aqsa Mosque,'' the sheik said.

As he finished, church bells from the nearby Christian quarter were pealing noon. Israeli troops surveyed the grounds from ancient rooftops above the compound as the faithful began to offer their prayers.

The devotion finished 20 minutes later. It took only seconds for the battle to erupt. Young Palestinians leaped up from their prayers and launched a volley of stones at the soldiers above. The response of Israeli gunfire was instantaneous.

The Israelis had been given an order not to use live ammunition, according to later reports on Israel radio. But the soldiers opened fire with both rubber bullets and live rounds.

Older worshipers, gray-bearded men and wizened women in headscarves, scrambled and staggered for the gates or for cover. Many cowered behind trees and 400-year-old fountains.

But hundreds of younger Muslims, mainly teen-agers, raised a chant of ``There is no god but Allah'' and surged forward, grabbing more stones. Rocks flew. The crackle of gunfire built to a crescendo.

Even during the worst confrontations in recent years, Israeli troops had remained outside the compound. But after five minutes Friday, hundreds of soldiers stormed through the gates, rifles blazing. Dozens assumed positions just outside the doors of the Al Aqsa Mosque itself. Many more crouched behind ancient stone walls beside the glittering gold, seventh-century Dome of the Rock, the best known structure in Jerusalem's skyline.

``I've never seen these soldiers come into the Haram before, never in my whole life,'' said a worshiper, Abdel Raouf Baraka.

Helmeted soldiers, both the paramilitary border police and special forces, fanned out across the esplanade, rifles cocked and cradled, patrolling the esplanade as if they were stalking a jungle enemy. The furious pounding of gunfire continued. So did the cascade of rocks.

Knots of old women shook their fists at the columns of passing soldiers and spat at them.

``God take revenge on you, you beasts,'' shrieked one woman. The soldiers did not respond, and they moved on.

From loudspeakers atop the high white minaret, Sheik Hussein broadcast an appeal for a truce. ``Please keep order!'' he pleaded. ``Please calm the situation down!'' His voice was breathless.

By 12:45, most of the protesters had fled and only occasional shots punctured the air. But as the clashes ebbed, due perhaps more to Israeli firepower than the sheik's plea, it quickly became clear that dozens had been injured. The wounded were relayed across the compound in stretchers and in the arms of fellow worshipers to a rudimentary clinic below the Dome of the Rock.

Mosque officials hauled out metal partitions and placed them around the bloodstains outside the doors of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It is religiously forbidden for Muslims to step on blood.

Over the loudspeakers, Sheik Hussein urged the hospitals of East Jerusalem to dispatch ambulances to Al Aqsa. The desperate plea blared from atop the minaret and echoed out over the creneled city walls and the Kidron Valley beyond, toward the two main Arab hospitals atop the Mount of Olives. The official Palestinian radio station, hearing the sheik's request, immediately began to broadcast the appeal as well.

Within moments, the sirens began. A convoy of ambulances and private cars ferried the wounded up to the Mount of Olives.

The most seriously injured were taken to Al-Makassed Hospital. Three East Jerusalem residents died of their wounds, according to Hussein Maghrabi, the chief nurse in the emergency department. Ayman Idkaidek, 23, and Jawad Bislamit, 20, died of gunshots in the head. Ibrahim Abu Ghaneim, 19, died of gunshots in the chest and shoulders.

Israel radio reported that one of the 20 Israeli soldiers injured was in serious condition.

About 50 Palestinians were treated at Al Makassed and released, while 43 others required more serious care. Most of those had suffered gunshot wounds, mainly from rubber bullets but also from live ammunition, according to Maghrabi.

Even as Maghrabi ran through the list of casualties, the cycle of violence began again. In the street outside the hospital gates, new clashes erupted between stone-throwing Palestinian youths and Israeli police and soldiers. Demonstrators chanted ``Kalashnikov! Kalashnikov!'' and called for revenge.

Outside the Temple Mount, Palestinian residents were banned for several hours from entering the stretch of the Via Dolorosa where the tunnel door was opened. But camera-clutching tourists in shorts, seemingly unaware of the surrounding turmoil, continued to retrace Jesus Christ's steps.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) After throwing stones at Israeli forces, Pale stinians duck rubber bullets at the entrance of the West Bank town of Ramallah.

(2) Young Palestinians hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers on rooftops overlooking Islam's third holiest shrine.

Associated Press