Netanyahu Bans Ministers, Knesset Members From Entering Al-Aqsa Mosque

Under this “status quo” agreement, non-Muslims are permitted to visit the site but not to pray there.

A sixth Israeli civilian was stabbed by a Palestinian woman in Jerusalem. A Palestinian demonstrator stands amid smoke of burning tires ahead of clashes with Israeli safety forces in Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Thurs.

“We don’t attack anyone and we want [Israelis] to stop attacking us, we want them not to enter Al-Aqsa”, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told journalists on Thursday, referring to the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, which is also known as the Temple Mount. The step was meant to reduce tensions and deny Palestinians a pretext for the continuing wave of terror.The step boomeranged after the Prime Minister’s Office clarified Thursday that the order applied to Arab lawmakers and public figures as well as Jewish ministers and lawmakers.

Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List, a Knesset coalition of four main Arab-Israeli parties, heavily condemned the move.

Netanyahu made the controversial decision in order to quell Muslims’ fears that Israel was preparing to assert sovereignty over part or all of the Mount, the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, and the long-destroyed Jewish Biblical Temples. Police say they will ban men under the age of 50 from attending Friday prayers at the mosque.

The Israeli army also fired foul-smelling “skunk bombs” at the area.

Netanyahu said the Israeli military, the Shin Bet security agency and the Israel Police are operating on all fronts, including ambushes, undercover operations, arrests, fortified presence on the roads, security for settlements, operational entry into Palestinian cities of the West Bank, and penetration into Arab Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Palestinians have held dozens of protests across Israel and the West Bank and have carried out several terrorist attacks.

The violence has escalated in the past week.