Israel closes West Bank, tightens security ahead of Friday prayers

Mar 12, 2010, 8:12 GMT

Jerusalem - Israel closed roadblocks in the West Bank and strengthened security forces in East Jerusalem ahead of Friday's Muslim prayers, which last week ended in stone-throwing and Israeli police storming the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Palestinians have been protesting an Israeli decision taken in late February to include Jewish-Muslim shrines in the occupied West Bank in a list of 'national heritage sites' up for renovation.

On Friday last week, youths hurled rocks from the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif platform, on which the al-Aqsa Mosque stands, at Jewish worshippers praying at the Wailing Wall underneath the elevated compound.

Police responded by storming the open-air plateau to disperse the protesting crowd and some 60 Palestinians were treated for the effects of teargas, while 15 policemen were lightly wounded by stones.

This Friday, the Israeli police imposed age restrictions on Muslim worshippers, banning the entry of men aged under 50, to avoid rioting by youths, Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told the German Press-Agency dpa.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak also ordered the Israeli military seal off the West Bank, allowing only patients, medical staff, religious workers and teachers with special permits to pass through army roadblocks on key access roads.

The 'closure' would be in place until Saturday midnight, the military said.

'The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will continue to operate in order to protect the citizens of Israel while maintaining the quality of life of the Palestinian population in the area,' it said in a statement.

Israeli warplanes early Friday also struck two targets in the southern Gaza Strip, after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants destroyed a warehouse in the Israeli community of Nirim.

Palestinians said an oxygen factory that serves hospitals in the town of al-Garara, near Khan Younis, was hit.

Hamas security forces which control the Gaza Strip prevented journalists and residents from approaching the scene, indicating that the factory may belong to the Hamas movement, witnesses said.

Israel said the facility was in fact a weapons factory.

An underground tunnel in the Gaza-Egypt border town of Rafah was also struck.

A relatively unknown Muslim Sunni group calling itself the Jihadi Salafists claimed credit for the rocket fired into Israel.

No injuries were reported in either the rocket or the Israeli retaliatory strike.