Israel eases Al Aqsa restrictions after Kerry talks

Forty thousand attend Friday prayers without incident in Jerusalem after age restrictions on entry to Al Aqsa mosque are lifted.

Palestinian youth go to Friday prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City on November 14, 2014. Jim Hollander / EPA

JERUSALEM // Israel eased restrictions at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque on Friday after the US secretary of state John Kerry announced an agreement on steps to reduce tensions at the flashpoint compound.

The site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, has been the focus of months of unrest in annexed Arab East Jerusalem that has spread to the occupied West Bank and Arab communities across Israel, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising.

The Palestinians have been infuriated by a far-right Jewish campaign for prayer rights at Al Aqsa that threatens a decades-old status quo.

The violence prompted Mr Kerry to hold a flurry of meetings with the two sides in neighbouring Jordan on Thursday, after which he announced unspecified confidence-building measures.

Men of all ages were allowed entry for Friday prayers at Al Aqsa for the first time in months.

“It’s been four months that I haven’t been able to pray at Al Aqsa on Friday, even during the holy month of Ramadan,” said Amir, 18, from East Jerusalem’s volatile Silwan neighbourhood.

Israeli police said the prayers at Al Aqsa passed off without incident, although minor clashes were reported in the West Bank.

Sheikh Azzam Al Khatib, director general of the Islamic Waqf, Jordan’s Islamic authority which manages the site, said “40,000 worshippers came today peacefully and prayed and left the mosque quietly. We hope it’s a new page. We will monitor the Israeli performance in the coming days and weeks”.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld linked the decision to lift age restrictions to Mr Kerry’s talks in Jordan with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and King Abdullah II.

“Firm commitments” were made to maintain the status quo, Mr Kerry said at a news conference with the Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh.

Israel and Jordan, which has custodial rights at the compound, also agreed to take steps to “de-escalate the situation” in Jerusalem and to “restore confidence”.

“We are not going to lay out each practical step. It is more important they be done in a quiet and effective way,” Mr Kerry said.

“It is clear to me that they are serious about working on the effort to create de-escalation and to take steps to instil confidence that the status quo will be upheld.”

Mr Kerry met separately in Amman with the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who he said also committed to help calm emotions.

“President Abbas and I ... discussed constructive steps, real steps – not rhetoric but real steps that people can take – in order to de-escalate the situation and create a climate where we can move forward in a positive and constructive way,” Mr Kerry said.

“President Abbas strongly restated his firm commitment to nonviolence, and he made it clear that he will do everything possible to restore calm and to prevent the incitement of violence and to try to change the climate.”

The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is also due in the Palestinian territories and Israel from Saturday for talks with leaders on both sides.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly said his government has no plans to change the status quo at the compound which allows Jews to visit but not pray.

But his reassurances have failed to calm Palestinian anger that has also been fuelled by his government’s vigorous expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

A preacher at Al Aqsa on Friday denounced “Israeli aggression” in his sermon.

The Israeli public security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said on Wednesday he would order the installation of metal detectors at the entrances to the compound along with facial-recognition technology.

Sheikh Al Khatib of the Islamic Waqf rejected the idea.

An Israeli human rights group on Friday accused the police and paramilitary border police of “serious irregularities” in dispersing Palestinian protests in East Jerusalem.

An 11-year-old Palestinian boy was wounded in the Issawiya neighbourhood on Thursday when a so-called sponge round hit him between the eyes during clashes, medics said.

“Regulations stipulate that foam-tipped bullets must only be aimed at the lower body,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.

“Yet the testimonies we have received ... indicate that police forces operating in East Jerusalem have fired at, and hit the faces of, residents and journalists,” it added.

The father of the wounded boy, Samer Mahmoud, said his son’s skull was fractured and he was still in the intensive care unit at .

He said his son is being treated at Israel’s Hadassah hospital.

“The doctors at Hadassah told me there is no hope for him to see in his right eye,” he said.

The boy’s vision in his left eye is also likely to be weakened, Mr Mahmoud said.

Israeli police said they dispersed about 100 Palestinians who blocked a road near Jerusalem on Friday.

Palestinians also clashed with Israeli forces at Qalandia in the West Bank after prayers, throwing rocks at police and burning tires. Local media reported that Palestinians had broken through a section of Israel’s security barrier.

* Agence France Presse with additional reporting by Associated Press