August 21, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 22, 1424

TEL AVIV, Aug 20: Israeli police allowed tourists to visit the Haram Sharif compound, in occupied Al Quds, under heavy security on Wednesday after it had been closed to non-Muslim visitors for most of the past three years.

“After weighing the matter it was decided to reopen the Temple Mount today to visitors...(and) several hundred tourists and Jews visited the Temple Mount today,” said a police official.

“Whoever wants to visit the Temple Mount can from now on visit the Temple Mount during the hours the Temple Mount was open in the past,” he said.

Police briefly reopened the holy site to non-Muslim visitors earlier this year, but quickly shut it again because of tension with local Muslims.

A police spokesman said non-Muslim visitors would not be able to worship or enter the compound’s mosques. There was a heavy police presence in those areas of the shrine reopened to tourists.—Reuters/AFP