Metal detectors at Jerusalem Temple Mount cause clashes
Thousands of Muslims prayed in alleys and streets rather than inside Al-Aqsa Mosque. Then police used force against demonstrators.
Amid ten days of violence around Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Israel installed metal detectors and cameras at al-Aqsa Mosque on the mount, then reversed course on July 24.
Israel had erected metal detectors and cameras at entrances to the mosque in response to an incident July 14 in which three armed Arab residents of Israel fatally shot two Israeli police officers guarding the mosque. More deaths followed as three Israelis were stabbed to death in the West Bank, four Palestinians were killed in East Jerusalem, and a Jordanian worker stabbed an Israeli embassy worker.
On July 21, tens of thousands of Muslims heeded calls from their religious leaders to avoid prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in protest of security measures. Only several hundred worshipers prayed inside the mosque at Friday midday prayers on July 21, according to Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. More than 50,000 pray there on a typical Friday.
