Occupied Jerusalem: Muslim prayers at a major holy site in Occupied Jerusalem ended peacefully, Israeli police said on Friday but violence continued in the Occupied West Bank where a Palestinian was killed by Israeli occupation forces.
Tensions culminated after a Palestinian gunmen killed two police officers there on July 14. The Israeli regime then moved to install invasive surveillance devices at the site. The move outraged Muslims and sparked some of the worst street clashes in years and threatened to draw Israel into conflict with other Arab and Muslim nations.
Firas Dibs, an official from the Jordanian religious body that administers the sacred site, said tens of thousands attended Friday prayers.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said prayers at the Occupied Jerusalem shrine ended without incident. There were some sporadic low-level scuffles between Palestinians and Israeli forces nearby but nothing on the scale of recent violence.
A Palestinian was later shot and killed in the West Bank, Israel’s military said. It said no soldiers were injured after it claimed he was brandishing a knife at the Gush Etzion Junction, a busy intersection south of Occupied Jerusalem.
Israeli occupation soldiers had barred Palestinian men under 50 from Al Haram Al Sharif.
Muslims only returned to the site on Thursday after about two weeks of praying in the streets nearby to protest new Israeli surveillance measures.
Israel installed metal detectors and cameras at entrances to the holy compound, and Palestinians said the move was aimed at
trying to expand Israeli control over the site.
Four Palestinians have died in the past week and scores injured in violent clashes with Israeli occupation forces over the holy site.
The fate of the shrine is an emotional issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even the smallest perceived change to delicate arrangements there sparks tensions.
Palestinians accuse Israel of violating a status quo agreement and trying to expand its control over the Muslim holy site.
Under the agreement, Jews are allowed to visit Al Haram Al Sharif, but not to perform religious rituals there.
Radical Jewish groups have been campaigning to encourage more illegal raids on Al Haram Al Sharif.
Attempts by the Israeli regime to change the status quo have led to escalation of violence and tensions which claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis since last year. Jewish groups illegally entering the premises have the full protection of Israeli occupation forces.
Al Haram Al Sharif is built on top of the ancient remnants of the Temple Mount, a site sacred in Judaism, but was destroyed in the 4th century by the Romans, during their rule.
Al Haram Al Sharif site houses both Al Aqsa Mosque which was originally commissioned to be built under Omar, the second Caliph in Islam in the 7th century, and the Dome of the Rock which houses the rock from which Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) ascended to heaven, according to Islamic teachings.
