Al-Aqsa mosque reopens

Israel yesterday reopened an ultra-sensitive holy site closed after an attack that killed two policemen, but Muslim worshippers were refusing to enter due to new security measures including metal detectors and cameras.

Crowds chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as a number of initial visitors entered Jerusalem's Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. The flashpoint holy site includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

But midday Muslim prayers were held outside the site due to the new security measures.

"We reject the changes imposed by the Israeli government," Sheikh Omar Kiswani, Al-Aqsa director, told reporters outside.

Three Arab Israeli assailants opened fire on Israeli police Friday in Jerusalem's Old City before fleeing to the compound.

Israel took the highly unusual decision to close the Al-Aqsa mosque compound for Friday prayers, triggering anger from Muslims and Jordan, the holy site's custodian.

Meanwhile, Israeli ministers yesterday gave initial approval to a bill aimed at making it more difficult for the government to hand the Palestinians parts of Jerusalem as part of a future peace deal.

The bill, proposed by Shuli Moalem-Refaeli of the far-right Jewish Home, determines that any ceding of lands considered by Israel to be part of Jerusalem would necessitate a two-thirds majority vote in parliament.

Members of the ministerial committee for legislation approved the bill ahead of a series of discussions and votes in parliament.

Moalem-Refaeli said in the bill's explanatory notes that it sought to "fortify Jerusalem's unified status, safeguard its future and protect the security of its residents".

Israel occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

It claims all of Jerusalem as its united capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

The issue is among the most contentious in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli soldiers and police on an arrest mission in the town of Nabi Salah in the occupied West Bank shot dead a Palestinian who attempted to open fire at them early yesterday, the army said.

Another Palestinian suspect was lightly wounded and arrested, the statement from the military read.

On Saturday, a gunman targeted a vehicle near an Israeli settlement north of Ramallah and wounded a foreign national of Palestinian descent who is residing in a Palestinian village. In a separate incident, gunshots hit a military post near Nabi Salah.

The army said Tirawi was behind both incidents.