Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there is no change in prayer arrangements at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City, after a far-right minister in his ruling coalition had stated there was a policy shift, Reuters reports.
The compound, in the walled Old City, houses the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, and is also revered in Judaism as the Temple Mount, a vestige of two ancient temples.
The site is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Under a decades-old “status quo” arrangement with Muslim authorities, Israel allows Jews to visit on condition they refrain from religious rites.
“Israel’s policy of maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed and will not change,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.