Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said police intervened to allow visits to the site to continue without further incident after “having obtained information on masked youths” taking up positions in the mosque overnight and blocking its doors.
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Badran added that the Israeli aggressions, which have severely hurt the feelings of Muslims, are “a real test of patience” against the relentless assault on Palestinians and the mosque.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War.
The move aimed at soothing newly erupted clashes at the site between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces, Xinhua news agency reported.
Shaikh Omar Al Kiswani, director of Al Aqsa Mosque, said that the Waqf Department had already asked the Israeli police to close Al Magarebah gate during the last ten days of Ramadan and to prevent incursions of Israeli colonists into Al Aqsa Mosque.
He says police then locked the protesters in the mosque and opened the site to tourists and Jewish visitors.
Scores of Israeli security forces have reportedly encircled the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and are closely monitoring the entry of Palestinians into and their departure from the holy site.
This came a day after at least five worshipers were injured when Israeli police broke into al-Aqsa compound and attacked them with rubber-coated steel rounds.
Palestinians are angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and their attacks on Palestinian property, saying the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the sacred site.
She added Israeli police officers “suppressed the stone throwers using riot dispersal means”.
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The resolution passed with 26 votes for and six against, with the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany voting against. Jews refer to it as the Temple Mount, where Jewish temples stood in biblical times. An agreement was also reached with the Israelis. Muslims don’t want Jews to pray in the vicinity of their place of worship, which Jews refer to as Table Mount.
