Palestinian Muslims performing the Friday prayer on the streets of Jerusalem and under Israeli police eyes after Israel closed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City and banned holding the Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in an unprecedented act. (WAFA photo/Afif Amireh)

JERUSALEM, July 15, 2017 (WAFA) – In spite of Palestinian, Arab and Islamic calls on Israel to reopen Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for Muslim prayers, the third holiest site in Islam remained closed Saturday for the second day in a row.

Israel closed the gates to the mosque on Friday and banned the weekly Friday prayer following an attack outside the mosque compound by three Palestinians against Israeli police that left the three Palestinians and two policemen dead.

Banning prayer in the mosque on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, was unprecedented since the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and the West Bank in June 1967, according to reports.

Three Palestinians from Umm al-Fahm, a town inside Israel, attacked policemen outside the gates to the mosque killing two officers. Police chased the three inside the compound and shot them dead. The compound was then declared closed and prayer was banned.

Police also closed gates leading to the Old City of Jerusalem for most of Friday and banned traffic on roads leading to the Old City.

Muslims were forced to hold the Friday prayer outside the gates of the Old City under the eyes of reinforced police presence in the Old City and East Jerusalem neighborhoods.

At one point, police arrested the Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, and interrogated him for several hours at the Russian Compound police station in West Jerusalem before releasing him on $2800 bail.

The Mufti had called on Muslims to come to the mosque to pray in spite of the Israeli closure of the site.

President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the closure of the mosque and contacted Jordan, the official custodian over the Muslim holy places in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, urging it to intervene with Israel to reopen it.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Moumani criticized the unprecedented closure of the mosque and demanded that Israel reopen it.

Similar calls were made by Arab and Muslim officials around the world.

However, Israel remained adamant about closing the mosque compound for Muslim and said that it will reopen it on Sunday.

Fanatic Jewish groups have called on their government to use this opportunity to take control of the mosque and turn it in a Jewish temple.

M.K.