Jerusalem - Israeli police clashed with Palestinian rock throwers in the flashpoint Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount compound Sunday morning, arresting at least 12, Palestinian and Israeli accounts said. According to the Israelis, police accompanying a group of tourists onto the mount noticed a group of youth preparing barrels of oil to pour on the ground to hinder the progress of the visitors.
The fracas began when police called in reinforcements, who were pelted with rocks. Police dispersed the rioters using stun grenades.
The compound 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.
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, after after a group of French tourists made a pre-arranged, organized tour of the site under Israeli police escort.
Over the weekend, radical Muslim and Jewish clerics called on their followers to come to the compound.
