JERUSALEM, July 16, 2013 (WAFA) – Israeli police Tuesday closed al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem to non-Muslims to prevent fanatic Jews from stirring trouble on the Muslim site, according to Waqf officials.

Azzam Khatib, director of the Muslim Endowment, the Waqf, told WAFA that his office and the Jordanian government, the official custodian over the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem, exerted all night efforts to prevent the Jewish fanatics from entering al-Haram al-Sharif, the Holy Sanctuary, which houses al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock.

He said that the all-night heavy presence of Muslim worshippers in the compound sent a clear message to the Israeli authorities that it should not allow the fanatics in.

Various Jewish groups have called on their followers, mainly hardline religious fanatics, to converge on the Muslim site on Tuesday to mark the destruction of the temples thousands of years ago and to start work on rebuilding the third temple on the site.

While the Israeli police has allowed the fanatics to parade the streets of the predominantly Arab Old City all night, it decided not to allow them inside the compound in fear of outbreak of violence.

M.S.