Eight detained by police on Temple Mount after reopening
The holy site has been shut for worship for over two months due to the COVID-19 epidemic
By JEREMY SHARONIsraeli police officers secure the area following a suspected shooting attack in which an Israeli policeman was injured lightly near the entrance to the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City February 6, 2020(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)
Eight Muslims were detained on the Temple Mount Sunday morning after they began shouting nationalistic slogans at a group of Jews visiting the site and tried to disrupt their visit, the police said.The holy site was opened for the first time to Jews and Muslims on Sunday since March 22 when it was closed due to COVID-19 social-distancing regulations, although Jewish activists have claimed that 20 to 30 officials from the Jordanian Waqf which administers the site have prayed there on a regular basis during the shutdown.Before dawn Sunday morning, hundreds of Muslim worshippers waited outside the gates to the Temple Mount complex in the Old City of Jerusalem and flooded in once the doors were open, with many singing “with blood and spirit we will redeem al-Aqsa,” the name of the mosque at the southern end of the holy site.It is likely that some of the worshippers who ascended in the morning were amongst those who sought to interfere with the tour of the Jewish visitors later in the morning.In total, 206 Jews went up to the Temple Mount on Sunday morning, 147 in the morning visiting hours, and 59 in the afternoon.Amongst those who visited were Temple Mount activist and former Likud MK Yehudah Glick, former government minister and Bayit Yehudi MK Uri Ariel, and former Bayit Yehudi MK Shuli Muallem.Elishama Sandman, chairman of the Yeraeh organization which encourages Jewish visitation to the site said it was “very pleasing to see hundreds of Jews go up to the Temple Mount after 70 days of closure.”He said the Jewish visits were “calm,” despite the attempts in the morning to disrupt them which he said were dealt with effectively by the police.
