After the Muslim riots over Jews visiting Har Habayis on Sunday, Tisha B’Av, police announce the holy site will remain closed to all non-Muslim visitors until Thursday, to avoid a replay of the violence during the remaining days of the Muslim “Feast of the Sacrifice” holiday.

It is explained that normally, Har Habayis remains closed to Jews during the Feast of the Sacrifice, but the problem this year was that the first day of the five-day holiday coincided with the observance of Tisha B’Av.

With Muslims well-aware of this, the call was made last week for the masses to visit al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday morning, and this is exactly what occurred, with police estimating some 60,000 Muslim worshipers were on the Mount when the violence began. Har Habayis was then closed to Jews and reopened later on.

For police, it was a day of violence and confrontations, leading to some 18 persons, including policemen, sustaining injuries. Bottles, stones and other objects were hurled at Jews and police by so-called Muslim ‘worshipers’.

According to Red Crescent officials, 60 Arabs were injured, of which, 15 were taken to Jerusalem’s Mukassed and Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospitals.

It should be noted that Gedolei Yisrael throughout the generations along with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, have prohibited visiting Har Habayis as there is an Issur Kares.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)