JERUSALEM: Muslim men over 50 prayed at Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday amid intense security, a day after Israel closed all access to the compound for the first time in more than a decade.

More than 1,000 Israeli police were deployed around the Old City’s cobbled streets and the ancient gates that lead to Al-Aqsa, a spokeswoman said, in addition to undercover anti-riot units.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the closure of Al-Aqsa combined with other dangerous escalations by Israel were “tantamount to a declaration of war”.

Worshippers wanting to enter the ornate marble-and-stone compound, which contains the golden Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque, queued behind blue barricades to show their identification papers to the police.

More than 4,000 people attended midday prayers, police said. There were a few isolated disturbances, inclu­ding firecrackers being set off nearby and an attempt by a group of young Palestinian men to break through the police cordon.

Clashes between Palesti­nians and Israeli security forces erupted at several locations across the West Bank in the afternoon and a number of protesters were injured, Palestinian medical officials said.

Israeli authorities shut all access to Al-Aqsa on Thursday after the shooting of Yehuda Glick, a far-right religious activist who has led a campaign for Jews to be allowed to pray at the site, which they refer to as Temple Mount.

The man suspected of shooting him, a Palestinian from the neighbourhood of Abu Tor in the eastern, mainly Arab side of the city, was shot dead by Israeli forces before dawn on Thursday, following an exchange of gunfire.

Locals said it was the first time all access to Al-Aqsa had been banned since the second Intifada, or Palesti­nian uprising, erupted in 2000. But Jordanian authorities, who are responsible for administering the site, and Palestinian officials said it was the first full closure of the compound since the 1967 Middle East war.

Tensions have been high on the streets of East Jerusalem and around Al-Aqsa for weeks, following the Gaza conflict and Israel’s moves to expand settlement building in eastern areas of the city, which the Palestinians want as the capital of an independent state.

Published in Dawn, November 1st , 2014