Israel mulls removing metal detectors at Al Aqsa Mosque
occupied jerusalem — Israeli regime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is weighing whether to remove metal detectors at Al Aqsa Mosque compound whose installation has stoked Palestinian protests, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Thursday.
There have been nightly confrontations between Palestinians hurling rocks and Israeli police using stun grenades in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem since the devices were placed on Sunday at entrances to the Noble Sanctuary compound.
Tensions remain high ahead of Friday prayers when thousands of Muslims usually flock to Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine.
The Israeli army said it had put five battalions on standby to reinforce troops in the occupied West Bank if required.
Muslim religious authorities, who say the metal detectors violate a delicate agreement on worship and security arrangements at the Jerusalem site, have been urging Palestinians not to pass through, and prayers have been held near an entrance to the complex.
Netanyahu was due to hold security consultations over the issue, and likely decide on a course of action, on his return to Israel later in the day from visits to France and Hungary, public security minister Gilad Erdan said.
Extremist members of Netanyahu’s government have publicly urged him to keep the devices in place at the flashpoint site, but Israeli media reports said security chiefs were divided over the issue amid concerns of wider protests in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
“The prime minister is considering whether to change this decision, and that’s his prerogative,” Erdan said on army radio. He described the equipment as a legitimate security measure.
In the West Bank on Thursday, a Palestinian allegedly tried to stab two Israelis soldiers and was shot dead, the army claimed. It was not immediately clear if the alleged attack was prompted by the tensions over the holy site.
Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Hamas movement that rules Gaza, called on Palestinian demonstrators to confront Israeli troops along the enclave’s border on Friday.
“Let Friday be a turning point in the battle in the defence of Jerusalem and Al Aqsa,” Haniyeh said in a televised speech.
Last Friday, three gunmen shot dead two Israeli policemen outside the Noble Sanctuary complex in one of the most serious attacks in the area in years. The assailants were killed by security forces.
Israel briefly closed the compound and installed the metal detectors which it said were commonplace at religious sites worldwide.
Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank, in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that is not recognised internationally. — Reuters