Israel prevents Palestinian PM from entering Jerusalem

Israel prevented on Friday the Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and other senior officials from entering Jerusalem, a Palestinian official said.

Ehab Bseiso, spokesman for the Palestinian government, told Xinhua that the Israeli authorities barred Hamdallah from entering Jerusalem through the Hizma military checkpoint.

Bseiso slammed this move, describing it as a representation of the occupation's "arrogance."

He explained that Hamdallah tried to go to the holy city to stress the denunciation of the Israeli "violations" at al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem. Hamdallah was accompanied by two senior intelligence officials, Majed Faraj and Ziad Hab al-Reeh.

The city's eastern side was a source of tension for the past three days after violent clashes erupted between the Israeli police and Palestinian worshippers at the compound of al-Aqsa mosque.

Palestinians fear that Israel will allow more Jews to enter al-Aqsa compound during the Jewish holidays that continue till early October. They warn that Israel wants to impose a temporal and spatial division at the mosque's compound, contrary to the status quo.

Palestinians want east Jerusalem that houses al-Aqsa mosque as the capital of their future state while Israel claims the city as its undivided capital.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem city in 1967. However, the international community doesn't recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and sees its annexation as a violation to the 1947 UN Partition Plan that recommends placing Jerusalem under a special international regime.

Source: XINHUA