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By Kaamil Ahmed
With sandwiches, coffee and a dose of patience, Palestinians began their morning waiting at the gates of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque for a decision on whether they could enter the holy site after more than a week protesting at its threshold.
The metal detectors they have been boycotting, installed after a deadly shootout earlier this month, were removed in the early hours of Tuesday but local residents and mosque officials have raised concerns about work done by Israeli authorities at the same time.
"Worshippers will not enter Al-Aqsa until we receive the Waqf [Islamic foundation] report on the situation, and we will decide accordingly," Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, an imam of Al-Aqsa, told Anadolu Agency after an initial meeting of Jerusalem religious authorities.
After more than a week of non-violent protests outside the gates of Al-Aqsa, led by the Waqf, which manages the holy site according to historical agreements, Israel's security cabinet decided to remove the metal detectors but settled on a new 100 million shekel plan for security measures using "advanced technology".
The measures were introduced after two Israeli police officers and three suspected attackers, all Palestinian citizens of Israel, were killed in an attack more than a week ago. Israeli police said guns had been smuggled into the mosque beforehand.
Women and mostly older men, many of them Waqf employees, sat in the shade at Bab al-Majlis, one of the main entrances to Al-Aqsa, where local residents said a large metal bar was installed over the gate during the night - though they did not know what its purpose was.
"The situation is unacceptable. They must return Al-Aqsa to how it was before," Zahra Quos, a resident of the African enclave, which lies on the edges of the mosque, told Anadolu Agency. "We refuse to enter through metal detectors or under cameras."
She said the new security measures suggested by Israel were not acceptable because they were only a more advanced form of search for worshippers.
-No to cameras
The director of the African Community Center, Mousa Quos, said he expected any decision by the religious authorities to be in line with the demands of Palestinian people.
"The ordinary people refuse this situation. They want everything to be removed, not only the metal detectors but also the cameras because the entire Old City of Jerusalem is full of cameras," he said.
Thousands have been protesting daily but pressure on both sides to find a resolution increased on Friday following weekly congregational prayers, when police forcefully dispersed worshippers in the street and later clashed with Palestinians in areas of occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Four Palestinians were killed in the clashes and three Israelis were killed on Friday night, when they were stabbed inside their home in a West Bank settlement.
As news of Israeli vehicles arriving at Lions Gate filtered through overnight, scores of Palestinians gathered at the site, past midnight, where they faced off with border guard officers preventing anyone from approaching the construction area.
Apparently after a firework was set off, Israeli forces forcefully dispersed the crowd by rushing at them and launching a barrage of stun grenades.
Palestinians have based their objection to any new security measures at the holy site on the insistence that a delicate balance of prayer and visiting rights, known as the "status quo" be preserved.
They have argued new security measures alter the "status quo" by strengthening Israeli control over the site.
Israel has contended that new security measures are necessary after the shootout earlier this month and compared the metal detectors to measures at other holy sites.
Al-Aqsa mosque is Islam's third-holiest site but also revered by Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. -
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