Israel says Jerusalem mosque metal detectors to stay
MIDDLE EAST: Israel said yesterday it would not remove metal detectors whose installation outside a major Jerusalem mosque has triggered the bloodiest clashes with the Palestinians in years, but could eventually reduce their use.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet on Sunday evening local time. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would halt security ties with Israel until it scraps the walk-through gates installed at entrances to Al-Aqsa mosque plaza after two police guards were shot dead on July 14.
Netanyahu’s right-wing government is wary of being seen to yield to Palestinian pressure over the site, which Jews revere as the vestige of their two ancient temples. It was among areas of East Jerusalem that Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed as its capital, in a move not recognised inter- nationally.
‘‘They (metal detectors) will remain. The murderers will never tell us how to search the murderers,’’ Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli minister for regional development, told Army Radio.
‘‘If they (Palestinians) do not want to enter the mosque, then let them not enter the mosque.’’
Incensed at what they perceive as a violation of delicate decadesold access arrangements at Islam’s third-holiest site, many Palestinians have refused to go through the metal detectors, holding street prayers and often violent protests.
Reuters witnesses reported some light clashes between Muslim worshippers and Israeli security forces after prayers at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday night. Palestinian medical sources did not report any serious injuries.
The spike in tensions, and the deaths of three Israelis and four Palestinians in violence on Friday and Saturday, have triggered international alarm and prompted the United Nations Security Council to convene a meeting for Monday to seek ways of calming the situation.
One Jordanian was killed and two people, including an Israeli, were wounded in a shooting incident on Sunday in a building inside the Israeli embassy complex in Jordan’s capital Amman, police there said.
Details of what happened were unclear. Israel imposed a ban on reporting the incident and made no public comment.
Jordan has seen an outpouring of public anger against Israel in recent days, with Jordanian officials calling on it to remove the metal detectors at the Al-Aqsa mosque.
The spasm of violence began on Friday, when Israeli security forces shot three demonstrators dead, Palestinian medics said. Israeli police said they investigating the charge.
On the same day, a Palestinian were stabbed three Israelis in the occupied West Bank after vowing on Facebook to take up his knife and heed ‘‘Al-Aqsa’s call’’.
A Palestinian was killed in the Jerusalem area on Saturday when an explosive device he was building went off prematurely, the Israeli military said. Palestinian medics said he died of shrapnel wounds to the chest and abdomen.
On Sunday, a rocket was launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip but hit an open area, causing no damage, Israel’s military said.
Palestinian leader Abbas, referring to the metal detectors in a speech on Sunday, said: ‘‘If Israel wants security co-ordination to be resumed, they have to withdraw those measures.
‘‘They should know that they will eventually lose, because we have been making it our solemn duty to keep up security on our side here and on theirs.’’ - Reuters MEXICO: Five people were killed and nearly a dozen injured in separate shootings in Mexico City yesterday, adding to a growing death toll in the capital which has largely been spared the criminal violence plaguing the country.
Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot four people in a bar in the gritty Llano Redondo neighbourhood on the city’s southwestern fringe early on Sunday morning.
A woman, 23, and two men, 23 and 38, died of their injuries. Authorities said the fourth victim, a man, remains in hospital after the attack. – Reuters