A group of hardline activists were removed from the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem on Wednesday after violating a ban on Jewish prayer there, police said. The 10 Jews held their prayer-protest as Israelis commemorated Jerusalem Day, marking the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City following its capture in the Six-Day War of 1967.
The hilltop site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem is known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif compound, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The holiest site in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam, it is central to Israeli-Palestinian conflict and was taken from Jordan in the
1967 war. Jews are allowed to visit but not pray there to avoid provoking tensions, but Palestinians fear Israel will seek to assert further control over the site.