Jerusalem - Clashes between Israeli police and stone- throwing Palestinians after Friday's Muslim prayers left 16 people injured in a tense Jerusalem. Dozens clashed with police in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ras el-Amoud, where protesters blocked a main road and police moved to disperse them.
Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that 11 Israeli policemen and at least five Palestinians were slightly injured. Two rioters were arrested.
The Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque, on the disputed Temple Mount/Holy Sanctuary compound in Jerusalem's walled Old City, nonetheless ended without major incidents.
Only some 7,000 worshippers attended the prayers at the mosque, which on other, calm Fridays often attracts up to 30,000, after police restricted entry to men aged 50 or older and to women of all ages.
The restriction was a bid to prevent rioting by Muslim youths at the highly sensitive site, from where protests triggered by a visit by then hardline opposition leader Ariel Sharon in late 2000 developed into a major Palestinian uprising.
Thousands of police were deployed in the Old City and elsewhere in East Jerusalem to prevent major unrest, after Muslim leaders throughout the region had called for a day or rallies in support of the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Tensions in Jerusalem have been high since September 27, when rumours spread on the eve of the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday that Jews were trying to take over the compound.
The site is the third holiest in Islam, because according to tradition it marks the spot from where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven. But it is also the most sacred in Judaism, as it contains the ruins of the Jewish Biblical Temple.
Among those who called for rallies in support of al-Aqsa was a leading Sunni cleric, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who in Cairo last Monday called on Arabs and Muslims to defend it against the "Zionist dangers" threatening it.
As a result, thousands demonstrated in capitals in the region, including in the Jordanian cities of Amman and Zarqa.
In Amman, demonstrators made their way to the Prime Ministry, where they chanted slogans urging the government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and expel its ambassador.
They also called for the abrogation of the peace treaty which Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994. Under the pact, Israel acknowledged Amman's right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy places in East Jerusalem.
The demonstrations were called by opposition parties and trade unions. Anger is mounting in Jordan over unfounded reports that Israeli troops broke into al-Aqsa Mosque at least twice over the past two weeks.
Rosenfeld vehemently denied security forces had entered either the mosque, or the platformed compound on which it is located.
"There was no entry whatsoever, not of police and not of border police, he told the German Press Agency dpa, adding the police units only worked around the compound and elsewhere in Jerusalem "in order to deal with the disturbances that took place."
He said police had implemented the age limit on entry into the sensitive compound, because it had filmed evidence that radical Muslims had filled wheelbarrows and large dust bins with bricks, concrete blocks and stones for use in rioting against police.
Despite the relative calm Friday, some stone-throwing took place also in the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Wadi el-Joz and Sur Baher, but no injuries were reported.
Further to the north of Jerusalem, Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers manning the West Bank checkpoint of Qalandia. Soldiers responded with tear gas. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Heeding a call for a general strike and marches by the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, several hundred Palestinians marched in Palestinian cities in the West Bank, calling for protecting Jerusalem against what they regard as Israeli measures to turn it into a predominantly Jewish city.
In Gaza, Palestinians also marched in several cities, after the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the strip called for a "day of rage."
The rumours of a Jewish take-over of the Temple Mount spread after a group of French tourists made an pre-arranged, organized tour of the site under Israeli police escort.
