Israel deploys Iron Dome in South in run-up to Palestinian 'day of rage'

Palestinian and Arab anger has percolated in recent days over claims that Israel is provoking Muslims on Temple Mount.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Soldiers stand near the Iron Dome missile defense system outside Tel Aviv. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Soldiers stand near the Iron Dome missile defense system outside Tel Aviv.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The Israeli military has deployed the Iron Dome rocket interceptor on the outskirts of the southern city of Ashdod in anticipation of more rioting in Jerusalem, Channel 10 reported on Thursday morning.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has declared Friday "a day of rage" in response to recent developments on Temple Mount.
Palestinian and Arab anger has percolated in recent days over claims that Israel is provoking Muslims on Temple Mount.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Wednesday that his countrymen won’t allow Israelis to “desecrate” Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
“Al-Aksa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem,” Abbas said in his Ramallah office during a meeting with east Jerusalem activists.
Abbas said the Palestinians were determined to prevent Israel from passing its scheme to “divide” the Aksa Mosque compound.
“There will be no Palestinian state without Jerusalem,” he stressed. “We are in Jerusalem and we will stay in it to defend our Islamic and Christian holy sites. We’re not going to leave our country.”
He praised Muslim male and female worshipers whose job it is to harass Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount.
“Each drop of blood that was spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood as long as it’s for the sake of Allah. Every shahid (martyr) will be in heaven and every wounded person will be rewarded, by Allah’s will.”
Violence engulfed the Temple Mount and the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City earlier this week, following the Defense Ministry’s decree last week outlawing violent Islamist radical groups from entering the contested holy site.