JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s prime minister blamed “militant Islamic incitement” for growing tensions in Jerusalem, especially at a contested holy site that was ringed Friday by hundreds of Israeli riot police as about 15,000 Muslims performed weekly prayers there.
Prayers ended peacefully, though clashes erupted again later in the day between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli troops in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem and at the main Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of the city.
Tensions have been rising in recent weeks over the Jerusalem shrine, known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The complex, the third holiest site in Islam, houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-topped Dome of the Rock. Jews also revere it as the location of their biblical temples and consider it the most sacred location in their faith.
Since Israel captured the sacred plateau, along with the rest of east Jerusalem, from Jordan in 1967, Jewish worshippers have been allowed to visit – but not pray – at the site. The area is run by Muslim authorities under Jordanian custody.