Al-Jazeera.com :
Israel has deployed more than 1,300 police across occupied East Jerusalem to prevent violence after days of clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from the Old City, said there was a “huge security presence” around Al-Aqsa before noon prayers on Friday.
Police were then deployed to flashpoint neighbourhoods where Palestinian stone-throwers and security forces clashed later in the day.
For weeks, there have been near-daily scuffles in East Jerusalem, triggered by fears that Israel was preparing to change the rules about who can worship at the Al-Aqsa compound, which is holy to Jews as well as Muslims.
Police barred men of 35 and under from attending Friday prayers. Riot police manned metal barricades, checking identity papers and directing pedestrians.
At one checkpoint in the Wadi Joz area, just outside the Old City, about 500 young Palestinians who were denied entry to the mosque compound because of their age performed prayers on a street. They were faced by a row of riot police in black uniforms and helmets, as well as several officers on horseback.
About 15,000 people gathered to pray at Al-Aqsa and the event ended peacefully, but clashes erupted in other parts of East Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank.
At the Qalandia checkpoint separating Ramallah from Jerusalem, troops fired rubber bullets as several hundred protesters marched, some throwing rocks and petrol bombs, according to the Reuters news agency.
In East Jerusalem, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters hurling firecrackers and burning tyres that sent up huge clouds of black smoke in Shoafat refugee camp.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Thursday to reassure him that the government would not yield to increasing demands by Jewish hardliners to allow Jews to pray at Al-Aqsa.
Timeline: A review of the critical events that have marked the history of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Jordan acts as the custodian of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and other Muslim holy sites in annexed East Jerusalem.
The Al-Aqsa complex is known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Israel has deployed more than 1,300 police across occupied East Jerusalem to prevent violence after days of clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from the Old City, said there was a “huge security presence” around Al-Aqsa before noon prayers on Friday.
Police were then deployed to flashpoint neighbourhoods where Palestinian stone-throwers and security forces clashed later in the day.
For weeks, there have been near-daily scuffles in East Jerusalem, triggered by fears that Israel was preparing to change the rules about who can worship at the Al-Aqsa compound, which is holy to Jews as well as Muslims.
Police barred men of 35 and under from attending Friday prayers. Riot police manned metal barricades, checking identity papers and directing pedestrians.
At one checkpoint in the Wadi Joz area, just outside the Old City, about 500 young Palestinians who were denied entry to the mosque compound because of their age performed prayers on a street. They were faced by a row of riot police in black uniforms and helmets, as well as several officers on horseback.
About 15,000 people gathered to pray at Al-Aqsa and the event ended peacefully, but clashes erupted in other parts of East Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank.
At the Qalandia checkpoint separating Ramallah from Jerusalem, troops fired rubber bullets as several hundred protesters marched, some throwing rocks and petrol bombs, according to the Reuters news agency.
In East Jerusalem, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters hurling firecrackers and burning tyres that sent up huge clouds of black smoke in Shoafat refugee camp.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Thursday to reassure him that the government would not yield to increasing demands by Jewish hardliners to allow Jews to pray at Al-Aqsa.
Timeline: A review of the critical events that have marked the history of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Jordan acts as the custodian of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and other Muslim holy sites in annexed East Jerusalem.
The Al-Aqsa complex is known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
