Israeli police detain 2 Al-Aqsa guards for allegedly assaulting Jewish
visitors
July 27, 2016 5:13 P.M. (Updated: July 27, 2016 5:18 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772404

JERUSALEM (Ma’an - Palestinian news agency) -- Israeli police detained
Wednesday morning two Palestinian security guards at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in
occupied East Jerusalem, as Israeli settlers toured the compound under armed
escort.

Islamic Endowment (Waqf) spokesperson Firas al-Dibs said that Israeli police
detained Hamza al-Nabali and Hamza al-Desse while they were on duty as
guards in the mosque.

Another Palestinian was summoned for interrogation by Israeli police for
allegedly assaulting and injuring Israeli settlers on the compound.

Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said in a statement that the two
security guards were detained after they "assaulted" a Jewish tourist who
was among a group of visitors touring the compound during the period
allocated for "foreign non-Muslim" visitors.

Eyewitnesses told Ma’an that four Jewish Israeli settlers had been touring
the holy site escorted by Israeli police, when they started picking olives
from the trees once they reached the Bab al-Rahma entrance to the compound.
When Palestinian worshipers tried to stop them, the Israelis assaulted them,
according to the witnesses.

While Israeli police claimed that the visitors were foreign tourists, some
Israeli media sites reported they worked for the Israel Antiquities
Authority.

Compound Director Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani condemned the raid into the holy
site, saying it didn’t matter if they were Israelis or foreigners..

He refuted Israeli police’s claims against Al-Aqsa Mosque’s guards, saying
that “no assault has been reported by a Palestinian against any tourist in
the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the last several years.”

He described the events as “altercations” between Palestinian worshipers and
Israeli settlers, insisting the Palestinian guards merely attempted to
intervene and diffuse the situation.

In a separate statement, al-Samri said Israeli forces overnight released
from custody a Palestinian resident from the Silwan neighborhood -- just
south of the Old City -- and banned him from entering the mosque. She
identified him as Ahmad al-Abassi, said to be in his fifties.

Tensions around Al-Aqsa on Wednesday came after some 53 Palestinians -- 11
of them minors -- were arrested overnight Tuesday in a massive detention
campaign involving hundreds of Israeli police and border guard officers
deployed throughout occupied East Jerusalem.

The third holiest site in Islam, Al-Aqsa is also venerated as Judaism’s most
holy place, as it sits where Jews believe the First and Second Temples once
stood.

While Jewish visitation is permitted to the compound, non-Muslim worship is
prohibited according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian
government after Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Despite this agreement, Israeli authorities regularly allow Jewish visitors
to enter the site -- often under armed guard. Such visits are typically made
by right-wingers attempting to unsettle the status quo at the site, and
coincide with restrictions on Palestinian access, including bans on entrance
and detentions.