Israeli police were on high alert around the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday over fears that Jewish and Muslim groups were set to clash at the flashpoint site, a spokeswoman said. The alert was raised after various Muslim groups posted calls online urging people to head to the compound to "protect" it after a Jewish group of rightwing extremists said they were planning to visit, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
Police were deployed around Al-Aqsa and throughout the Old City "following various calls on different Internet sites by terrorist groups calling on people to go protect the compound after calls from the extreme right to come today," Samri said in a statement.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said 15 vans of riot police were parked by the Dung Gate near the Mughrabi ramp, which runs from the Western Wall plaza up to the walled mosque compound. On Sunday, police used tear gas to disperse Palestinians who were throwing stones at tourists and police inside the compound, and arrested 13 people.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.