Israel Police arrest 2 Palestinians on Temple Mount amid clashes

The Waqf, an arm of the Jordanian Ministry of Sacred Properties, administers the site.

Muhannad Idris, a Waqf guard on the mount, was photographed with multiple injuries after the arrest, including a head injury.

"During standard visits to the Temple Mount this morning, one of the locals began to curse and spit at the visitors," said a Israel Police spokesperson. "When he resisted arrest by police, he began to attack them and injured an officer who was transferred for medical treatment. While attacking the officer, the suspect was also injured and was transferred for medical treatment after his details were taken by police."

 

Later on Wednesday, Quds reported that Raed Zghayer, a sanitation worker on the Mount, was also arrested by Israel Police.

On Wednesday evening, clashes broke out between Palestinian youth and Jews near the Chain Gate entrance to the Temple Mount, according to the news agency.

The Palestinian news agency also tweeted calls to confront Israeli "incursions and prevent them from breaking into Al Aqsa on the morning of Eid al-Adha."

Eid al-Adha, known as the "festival of sacrifice," coincides with the completion of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and commemorates Ibrahim's (Abraham) readiness to sacrifice his son in order to demonstrate his dedication to G-d, according to The Independent.

The festival begins on the evening of Sunday, August 11, and ends on the evening of Thursday, August 15.

From Saturday night, August 10, until Sunday evening, Jews mark Tisha Be'av, the day that the two Jewish Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, by fasting for 25 hours and abiding by other mourning practices, including sitting on the floor or low chairs and reciting the Book of Lamentations (Megillat Eichah), in which the prophet Jeremiah laments the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent exile.

Visits by religious Jews are monitored by Waqf guards and Israeli police – and all Jewish prayer, including silent prayer, is forbidden, according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. No sacred Jewish objects, such as prayer books or prayer shawls, may be brought onto the mount, according to tourism website Tourist Israel.

While Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that "every Jew has the right to ascend the Temple Mount, to pray on it, and to commune with his Creator," they also decided that "this right, like other basic rights, is not an absolute right. And in a place where the likelihood of damage to the public peace and even to human life is almost certain, this can justify limiting the freedom of religious worship and also limiting the freedom of expression."