Police killed in holy site shooting

Al-Aqsa mosque closed for Friday prayers

JERUSALEM: Following a deadly shooting attack that left two Israeli police officers and three Arab Israelis dead, Israeli forces imposed widespread closures on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and wider Jerusalem area yesterday.

Amateur video broadcast on Israeli TV stations showed a few seconds of what appeared to be part of the chase.

In the video, several people are seen running inside the compound. A man who had dropped to the ground suddenly jumps up and lunges at one of the officers before he is shot

Al-Aqsa compound director Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani said Israeli forces detained 15 of the mosque’s guards while the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, told reporters he had been prevented from entering Al-Aqsa.

Hussein was detained by police several hours afterwards, said his son, Omar Hussein, and was taken to a station in the Old City.

Yesterday was the first time since 1967 that Muslim worshippers were unable to attend Friday prayers at the mosque.

They were performed in the streets and alleys leading to the compound inside the Old City.

The rare attack from within the contested site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, raised new concerns about an escalation of violence.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas reached out to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call, highlighting the concern about a possible escalation. The leaders have almost no direct contact.

Abbas condemned the attack and said he rejected “any violence from any party, particularly at holy sites”, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Netanyahu said the status quo at the Muslim-administered site “will be preserved”.

Israeli president Reuven Rivlin said: “We cannot allow for agents of murder who desecrate the name of God, to drag us into a bloody war.”

Israeli police chief Roni Alsheikh said the weapons used in the attack had been brought into the holy compound.

Alsheikh said such an attack was “without precedent” at the holy site and an “incident of the highest severity”.

A relative said the three assailants were from the Jabareen clan – two 19-year-olds and a 29-year-old. They were devout Muslims and frequently visited the shrine, travelling to Jerusalem by bus from their homes in northern Israel, the relative said.

The younger men belonged to a kick-boxing club and the older one was unemployed because of health problems, relative Yehiyeh Jabareen told The Associated Press. He said clan members were in shock over the shooting.

Jabareen confirmed the authenticity of a pre-attack post on the Facebook page of one of the younger attackers. A photo shows him and the older man posing at the shrine. The younger man has a half-smile.

The caption reads: “God willing, tomorrow’s smile will be more beautiful.”

The two slain policemen were members of Israel’s Druze community, followers of a secretive off-shoot of Islam. – AP and Ma’an

PICTURE: AP Muslim worshippers were prevented from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray outside Jerusalem’s Old City yesterday. Israel’s police chief said two officers were killed in an attack by assailants near a Jerusalem shrine.