Israeli police have prevented hundreds of young Palestinians from entering a contested holy site in Jerusalem for the first prayer in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli media reported on Monday.
A video clip filmed no Sunday and published by Haaretz newspaper showed uniformed police using batons to drive people back along a narrow passageway. Media reports spoke of crowds and isolated clashes in Jerusalem.
Some young people did manage to gain access to the holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, “when they arrived with their parents or in cases where the police opened the barriers due to pressure created by the gatherings, and let anyone who wanted to enter without being checked,” Haaretz reported.
Last week, the Israeli government said Muslims would be allowed to pray at the site, which houses al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine, during the month of Ramadan.
The security situation is to be constantly monitored during the month, amid concerns expressed by Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, that Hamas will seek to “inflame the region during Ramadan.”
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA citing eyewitnesses reported on Monday that Israeli forces had refused entry to the al-Aqsa Mosque, detaining several people. The eyewitnesses said that young men had been blocked from entering, while women from the age of 40 had been allowed to enter.
The Israeli police did not initially respond to a request for information.
For Muslims, the site is Islam’s third holiest, but it is also sacred to Jews as it has the ruins of the Biblical Jewish Temple. It lies in Jerusalem’s Old City, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
The Muslim sites are administered by a Jordanian foundation, but Israeli security forces control all access points.
Jerusalem Grand Mufti Muhammad Ahmad Hussein announced on Sunday evening that Ramadan would begin in the Palestinian areas on Monday.
LINK: Media reports: Israeli police block youths from entering holy site (yahoo.com)
