Israel FM claims, committed to status quo at Al-Aqsa
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Jerusalem: Following recent skirmishes in the fasting month of Ramadan in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, the third holiest shrine of Islam, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has claimed that his country is "committed" to the status quo that bans Jews from praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, the flashpoint of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
"Israel is committed to the status quo on the Temple Mount," Lapid said during a press briefing, using the Israeli name of the site which is holy to both Muslims and Jews, reports Xinhua news agency.
"Muslims pray on the Temple Mount, non-Muslims visit. There is no change," he said and added that Israel does not have any plans to divide the Temple Mount between religions.
"They've done this to create a provocation, to force the Israeli police to enter the Mosque and remove them," he said.
At least 200 Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli police since April 15, the day the Jewish week-long holiday of Passover began as Muslims have been observing their holy month of Ramadan.
The Palestinians say that the clashes erupted when Israel allowed thousands of Jews to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which Jews revere as the site of their biblical-era temple that was destroyed in AD 70, to mark their Passover holiday.
The holy site is located in East Jerusalem, a territory that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed shortly later, claiming it part of its "indivisible" capital, in a move unrecognized by most of the international community.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has been administered by Jordan but secured by the Israeli police.
Under a long-held status quo, Jews are allowed to visit the site but not to pray there.
However, far-right extremists have begun to quietly pray at the site over the past years, while an ultra-nationalist Israeli movement, led by settler activists, calls for rebuilding the Jewish temple there.