Headlines
Israel prevents Palestinian PM from entering Jerusalem
Ramallah, Sep 18
Israel on Friday prevented
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and other officials from
entering Jerusalem, a Palestinian official said.
Ehab Bseiso,
spokesman for the Palestinian government, told Xinhua that the Israeli
authorities barred Hamdallah from entering Jerusalem through the Hizma
military checkpoint.
Bseiso slammed the move, describing it as a representation of the occupation's "arrogance".
He
said Hamdallah tried to go to the holy city to stress the denunciation
of the Israeli "violations" at al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem.
Hamdallah was accompanied by two senior intelligence officials, Majed Faraj and Ziad Hab al-Reeh.
The
city's eastern side was a source of tension for the past three days
after violent clashes erupted between the Israeli police and Palestinian
worshippers at the compound of al-Aqsa mosque.
Palestinians fear
that Israel will allow more Jews to enter al-Aqsa compound during the
Jewish holidays that continue till early October.
They warn that Israel wants to impose a temporal and spatial division at the mosque's compound, contrary to the status quo.
Palestinians
want east Jerusalem that houses al-Aqsa mosque as the capital of their
future state while Israel claims the city as its undivided capital.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem city in 1967.
However,
the international community doesn't recognise Jerusalem as the capital
of Israel and sees its annexation as a violation to the 1947 UN
Partition Plan that recommends placing Jerusalem under a special
international regime.