Police warned Temple Mount unrest could spread to mixed Jewish-Arab cities — report
Israeli TV says top cops believe decision to bar non-Muslims from visiting Jerusalem holy site over last 10 days of Ramadan prevented clashes that could have sparked wider flareup
Top police officials believe the decision to bar Jews and other non-Muslims from visiting the Temple Mount during the last 10 days of Ramadan prevented clashes at the Jerusalem holy site that could have sparked a wider conflagration, Israeli television reported Wednesday.
Citing unnamed police sources, Channel 12 news said intelligence indicated unrest at the Temple Mount would likely lead to violence in so-called mixed cities with significant Jewish and Arab populations. A number of these communities were rocked by rioting and inter-ethnic clashes in May 2021 when fighting broke out between Israel and the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group during Ramadan amid tensions over Jerusalem.
Separately, the Walla news site reported Military Intelligence has recently told political leaders that the prospect of war is currently more likely than restored calm. Intelligence assessments cited in the report said tensions are expected to persist when Ramadan ends later this month and that Israel should hold off for the moment on retaliating to recent attacks by Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group and Iranian proxies in Syria.
The report also said Military Intelligence warned the friction surrounding the Temple Mount was uniting various fronts and furthering the impact of online incitement against Israel.
Meanwhile, a top Hamas official said last week’s rocket fire from Lebanon and Gaza “proved there is someone who defends the Al-Aqsa Mosque” atop the Temple Mount.
“The resistance forces have the power and means to stop the aggression against the mosque and will work for its liberation,” Saleh al-Arouri said at an event in Beirut, according to a translation of his remarks by the Haaretz daily.
Al-Arouri, a founding commander of Hamas’s military wing and the group’s West Bank leader, said Israel was in the midst of “an unprecedented crisis” as a result of the divisions over the government’s judicial reform plans.
“[Israel] has never before experienced similar division,” he said, resulting in “internal disintegration while the axis of resistance gathers momentum and developments in the region work in its favor.”
Before Tuesday’s announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office that the Temple Mount would be closed to non-Muslims for the final 10 days of Ramadan, Hamas urged Palestinians to flock to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and not to leave the site, warning Israel against allowing continued visits of Jews there.
The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, is the holiest place for Jews as the site of the two ancient Jewish temples, and Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest shrine in Islam.
