Jerusalem/Near Nablus, West Bank: In response to a wave of turmoil that showed no signs of abating on Tuesday, Israel banned Jews and tourists from visiting a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem and said that forces killed two Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.
An Israeli police raid at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last week set off rocket launches from Gaza, south Lebanon, and Syria, which prompted Israeli air and artillery strikes. The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has been a flashpoint in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
After security consultations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement announcing a halt to non-Muslim visitors to the holy site, known as the Temple Mount in Judaism, until the conclusion of Ramadan, which is anticipated to occur around 20 April.
There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials on the ban, which Israel has imposed in previous years.
Under the longstanding “status quo” arrangement governing the compound, which Israel says it maintains, non-Muslims can visit but only Muslims are allowed to worship.
However, small groups of Jewish visitors have increasingly been documented praying at the outskirts of the site in defiance of those rules.
Netanyahu’s far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir denounced the move.
“When terrorism strikes us we must strike back with great force, not surrender to its whims,” he said in a statement.
With a year-long escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence, tensions are running especially high in the Holy Land as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover coincide.
The Israeli military on Tuesday said two Palestinian gunmen opened fire from a vehicle at an army post before soldiers shot back and killed them near the Elon Moreh settlement east of the city Nablus, a frequent area of clashes.
Local armed alliance Den of Lions confirmed that the two men were militants and the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed their deaths. Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged, with frequent military West Bank raids amid a spate of Palestinian street attacks. More than 90 Palestinians, most of them fighters in militant groups but some of them civilians, have been killed since January and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners have died.
Suspected Palestinian gunmen on Friday killed an Israeli-British mother and her two daughters in the West Bank and a ramming attack later in Tel Aviv killed an Italian tourist.
A Palestinian teen was killed on Monday during an Israeli raid in Jericho.
US-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza -territories Israel captured in a 1967 war – have stalled for almost a decade and show no sign of revival.
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