Police, army deploying thousands ahead of feared Friday Temple Mount protests
Five battalions of IDF soldiers and over 3,000 cops will be on hand to grapple with violence over increased security measures at holy site
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
Israel’s security authorities were set to flood the streets of Jerusalem on Friday with policeman and soldiers in an attempt to quell expected violence at protests over increased security measures at the Temple Mount compound in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The contentions site has reemerged as a flashpoint in recent days, with Muslim protesters holding at-times violent demonstrations outside of the Old City in protest of Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the gates to the Temple Mount, following a terror attack last week in which three Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers guarding one of the entrances to the site.
Over 3,000 police officers will be deployed “in and around the area of the Old City, Temple Mount and nearby neighborhoods,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Police are also said to be planning to limit the number of Muslim worshipers allowed to enter the Temple Mount area and blocking entry to the capital from other areas of the country ahead of Friday prayers.
In addition to the heavily bolstered police presence, the army announced that five battalions would be made available to deal with violence in an around the capital.
The IDF also cancelled all leave over the weekend, keeping all units at full strength in anticipation of violence.
Clashes erupted Thursday between Palestinians protesters and police in Jerusalem’s Old City after thousands of Muslim worshipers gathered around the contested Temple Mount holy site for evening prayers.
Palestinians threw rocks and glass bottles at the officers outside the Old City’s Lion Gate following evening prayers. Police responded with tear gas and riot dispersal methods, police said. Over 40 Palestinians and five Israeli officers were reported injured.
Friday prayers on the Muslim holy day are the busiest time in the week at the Temple Mount, with tens of thousands expected to arrive at the compound.
The Palestinian terror group Hamas called for mass protests on Friday against the stepped up security measures, which Israel said were necessary in light of last Friday’s terror attack there.
Israel initially closed the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, as it searched for further weapons. The compound, which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, was reopened Sunday with metal detectors installed, a step Palestinians protested as a change to the longstanding status quo. Israel denied this, and noted that those enter the Western Wall plaza below have long been required to pass through metal detectors. The Temple Mount is the holiest place to Jews as the site of the biblical temples.
The increased security measures were taken after police said the three attackers who emerged armed from the compound and shot at police on Friday had stashed their weapons on the holy site.
On Thursday, police released video footage showing how the killers and an accomplice got the guns into the Temple Mount compound.
On Thursday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with ministers and security chiefs to discuss whether to remove the new metal detectors and to consider other possible steps that might avert violence Friday.
Jerusalem’s police chief Yoram Halevi expressed confidence Thursday that his forces could deal with any protests Friday, and was not urging the removal of the metal detectors, according to a Channel 2 TV report.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
