TEL AVIV, Feb 27: Israeli police stormed the square outside the Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday to confront what they said were stone-throwing Palestinians as tensions heightened over Israel's West Bank barrier.

The clash at the site coincided with another spate of protests in the West Bank against the barrier, now under World Court review for cutting into occupied territory that Palestinians want for a state.

A spokesman said the Israeli police had fired rubber bullets and tossed stun grenades after hundreds of worshippers "started rioting" at the end of Friday prayers within the mosque.

He said police had mobilized to stop Palestinians in the sanctuary - which covers a plateau in the Old City - allegedly trying to stone Jewish worshippers standing below the compound at the Western Wall, which buttresses the hillside. Palestinians said police acted without provocation during the 30-minute clash.

"There was no provocation for such an Israeli attack," Adnan Husseini, director of the Waqf, which oversees the compound, said. "This is despicable and unacceptable."

Four Palestinian demonstrators and three police officials were lightly injured. A Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after Ariel Sharon, Israel's opposition leader at the time and now prime minister, visited the compound, which is at the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict. -Reuters