Jewish visitors and tourists will be banned from the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem until the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
An Israeli police raid at the site last week triggered rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, south Lebanon, and Syria. In previous years, Israel has banned Jewish visits to the compound in the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement following security talks that visits by non-Muslims to the sacred compound, known in Judaism as the Temple Mount, will be stopped until the end of Ramadan, expected around April 20 April.
Tensions are running especially high in the Holy Land as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover coincide. Two Palestinian gunmen were reportedly shot dead by Israel’s military in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, as a wave of unrest showed no sign of subsiding.
On Friday, suspected Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli-British mother and her two daughters in the West Bank. An Italian tourist was later killed in Tel Aviv.
