Occupied Jersualem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is weighing whether to remove metal detectors at occupied Jerusalem’s Al Haram Al Sharif whose installation after a deadly attack last week 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 Al Haram Al Sharif.
Tensions remain high ahead of Friday prayers when thousands of Muslims usually flock to Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, in the compound above Judaism’s sacred Al Buraq Wall.
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 occupied 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.
Far-right 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 occupied East Jerusalem and occupied 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 tried to stab two Israelis soldiers and was shot dead, the army said. It was not immediately clear if the alleged attack was prompted by the tensions over the holy site.
Esmail Haniya, leader of the Hamas Islamist movement that rules Gaza, called on Palestinian demonstrators to confront regime 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,” Haniya said in a televised speech.
He urged Palestinians to participate in a “day of rage” against the stepped up security measures.
Last Friday, three Palestinians of 1948 areas shot dead two Israeli policemen outside Al Haram Al Sharif 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 install the metal detectors which it said were commonplace at religious sites worldwide.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank, in the 1967 Middle East war, in a move never recognised by the international community. Palestinians seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
