Protests rage on as Israel tightens grip on Aqsa

Palestinians continue holding demonstrations outside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound to voice their outrage at Israel’s latest move to impose new restrictive measures at the holy site.

On Friday, three Palestinians and two Israeli police officers were killed in a shooting just outside the Haram al-Sharif which Jews call Temple Mount.

Following the incident, Israeli police briefly shut down the Aqsa compound in the occupied al-Quds ('Jerusalem') and canceled Muslim Friday prayers at the site for the first time since 1969.

After coming under fire from the Muslim world, Israel reopened the compound, but with metal detectors and surveillance cameras at entrances.

Since then, however, Palestinians have been refusing to enter the al-Aqsa compound through the metal detectors and hundreds of worshipers have been holding prayers outside the site with clashes occasionally breaking out.

Palestinians say Israel’s restrictions at al-Aqsa are meant to expand the Tel Aviv regime’s control over the highly-sensitive site and change its status quo.

Members of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, an Islamic religious trust that manages the current Islamic edifices on and around the Haram al-Sharif, urged Palestinians to close all mosques in al-Quds on Friday and gather for mass prayers in front of the gates of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in a show of anger at Israel’s new measures.

Waqf head Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib said all of the speakers of al-Quds mosques were requested not to hold prayers at their local sites, but instead head to al-Aqsa.

Israeli authorities should abandon installing metal detectors at al-Aqsa’s gates and end pursuing policies that “harm world peace,” he added.