UN Mideast envoy calls for Temple Mount solution by week’s end

The official also indicated that the PA would renew its security coordination with Israel – frozen over the installation of the detectors – if Israel took “logical steps”.

The continued stand-off highlighted the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians when it comes to the shrine – the third-holiest in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism.

The holy site in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, has served as a rallying cry for Palestinians. It has triggered major confrontations in the past.

A statement issued after the security cabinet meeting said it had made a decision to heed a recommendation of Israeli security bodies and replace the detectors with “smart checking” devices.

The government statement says the security cabinet met for several hours on the subject.

The senior official added that Jerusalem “is a red line that can not be crossed, and Israel must stop its abuses against the Palestinians”.

Yoav Galant was the lone Cabinet member to vote against the original decision to upgrade security measures at the site after Arab attackers opened fire from it earlier this month, killing two Israeli policemen.

Israel refused to remove the detectors, claiming the security measures were similar to procedures taken at other holy sites around the world.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says Wednesday that “journalists are being prevented from coming in those specific areas where there have been disturbances and riots”.

But Israeli officials said they were to be replaced with “advanced technologies” – widely believed to be smart cameras with facial recognition technology.

“They should know that they will eventually lose, because we have been making it our solemn duty to keep up security on our side here and on theirs”.

In his briefing on Tuesday to the UN Security Council he warned that developments of the past 11 days at the holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem had demonstrated the “grave risk” inherently associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which could escalate into a religious conflict ultimately engulfing the entire region.

Instead of issuing “a carefully worded statement asking for calm”, he said the Security Council should demand that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas stop the violence, “his tacit support for terror” and “Palestinian lies” – and “make him do so immediately before the lives of more innocent victims are lost”. Non-Muslims are allowed to visit the area as tourists and they enter through a separate gate where metal detectors have always been used. “At around the same time, it was announced that the embassy staff had returned to Israel”.

The Israeli security guard killed the two Jordanians after being attacked by one of them with a screwdriver late on Sunday.

The Israeli military said the assailant killed a man and two of his adult children, while his wife was badly wounded.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the Prime Ministry, Minister of State for Legal Affairs Bisher Khasawneh said that Jordan dealt with the embassy case in accordance with global law, a stand the Kingdom has consistently adopted.

But it remains to be seen whether Muslim worshippers will accept the security measures that Israel plans to implement in their place. The meeting was called by Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and will now be held on Thursday. Safadi defended the government’s handling of the embassy shooting, saying it had followed routine procedures as in any criminal case.

In the past, Israel was willing to pay a high price to protect the relationship, including releasing an Islamic militant leader from prison in a deal with Jordan.

An acrimonious session of Jordan’s parliament was cut short as lawmakers walked out in protest after the interior minister presented the initial findings of the incident at the embassy.

Tomorrow I will return to Jerusalem and continue our direct engagement with all stakeholders in order to facilitate a quick end to this crisis and a return to the situation which would allow the status quo to be observed, as well as for people to have safe and secure access to the holy sites in Jerusalem.

It was also not clear whether they would be accepted by Muslim worshippers.

A top aide to US President Donald Trump also arrived in Jerusalem for talks on the crisis on Monday.