Israel to curb Al-Aqsa entry as Palestinians mark Nakba

JERUSALEM: Israel's law and order chief said some Muslims would be denied entry to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Friday when Palestinians begin mourning the creation of the Jewish state.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told public radio Thursday that police would "thin out the number of worshippers at the Temple Mount" -- the Hebrew term for the compound inside the walled Old City which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The move to limit access to what is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina, came as the Palestinians were poised to begin a series of marches and demonstrations in the run up to Nakba Day, which will be commemorated on Sunday.

Activists behind a website called "The Third Intifada" have also called for a new uprising, which would see thousands of Palestinian refugees march towards homes from which they fled or were forced out of when Israel was created in 1948.

Palestinian refugees are also expected to stage rallies and demonstrations in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed that some restrictions would be in force during the Friday prayers but he was not immediately able to give details.

Israel on Tuesday celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its creation, marking the date according to the Hebrew calendar.

Palestinians and their Arab Israeli kin, who mourn the day as the "nakba" or "catastrophe," are to stage three days of rallies and protests starting on Friday.

But Aharonovitch told the radio he believed the anniversary would pass quietly, and Israeli news website Ynet quoted him as saying he had instructed the security forces "to exercise restraint and avoid using force."

More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number 4.7 million with their descendants -- were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict that followed Israel's creation.

Around 160,000 Palestinians, who remained in Israel after 1948, are known as Arab Israelis and now number around 1.3 million people, or 20 percent of the country's population.

Successive Israeli governments have refused to allow the Palestinian refugees to return to homes they fled from or were forced out of in 1948 for fear that a massive influx would threaten the Jewish majority in Israel, which now counts some 5.8 million Jewish citizens.