Israel removed metal detectors from entrances to the Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday in favour of CCTV cameras, but Palestinians said the modified security measures unacceptable
Israeli security forces stand by as Palestinian Muslim worshippers pray outside Lions' Gate, one of the Aqsa mosque entries. PIC/AFP
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Israel removed metal detectors from entrances to the Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday in favour of CCTV cameras, hoping to calm days of bloodshed, but Palestinians said the modified security measures were still unacceptable.
Israel installed the detectors at entry points to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem after two police guards were fatally shot on July 14, setting off the bloodiest clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in years. The spike in tensions and the deaths of three Israelis and four Palestinians in violence on Friday and Saturday raised international alarm and prompted a session of the United Nations Security Council to consider ways of defusing the crisis.
Palestinian PM Rami Hamdallah and the senior Muslim cleric who oversees Al-Aqsa compound both turned down the new Israeli measures and demanded all of them be removed. "We reject all obstacles that hinder freedom of worship and we demand the return to the situation where things stood before July 14," Hamdallah told his cabinet in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Waqf, the religious body that runs the Islamic sites in the Al-Aqsa compound, said worshippers would continue to stay away from the elevated, marble-and-stone plaza and pray in the streets.
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