Continued Crisis Surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israel's action of installing additional security cameras around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, proposed as a solution instead of metal detectors, has been rejected by Palestinian Muslims. According to Israeli media reports, dozens of Palestinian worshippers who attempted to enter Al-Aqsa on Sunday morning, August 1, refrained from entering the mosque in protest upon seeing the newly installed cameras. General Yoav Mordechai, a senior Israeli military official, stated in an interview with BBC World the day before that Israel welcomes any proposals from Arab and Islamic countries to resolve the crisis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a cabinet meeting on Sunday, said, 'We are managing the crisis with calm, decisiveness, and responsibility.' However, just hours earlier, Netanyahu authorized the police commander to decide on the continued use of electronic gates at the entrances to Al-Aqsa during a second emergency cabinet meeting. Meanwhile, Gilad Erdan, the Minister of Public Security, whose police are under his command, stated in an interview with the Israeli website Ynet on Sunday, 'We did not think that installing this equipment would lead to such violence.' Haaretz reported that officials from the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, warned during the emergency government meeting about the escalation of violence following the installation of the electronic gates. Some Israeli officials and analysts have speculated that this equipment, which has angered Palestinians, may be removed to prevent further escalation of the crisis. However, Gadi Eisenkot, the commander of the Israeli army, remarked on Sunday, 'We are facing an explosive period ahead.' The new security measures, including the installation of metal detectors around Al-Aqsa in East Jerusalem, aimed at preventing the potential entry of weapons by Palestinians, escalated into a larger crisis starting from Friday, July 23. The metal gates were installed after three Arab Israeli citizens brought weapons into Al-Aqsa and shot at Israeli security forces stationed near the mosque entrance, killing two of them. However, the tensions since then have resulted in the deaths of at least five Palestinians and the killing of three members of an Israeli family. On Friday, July 30, widespread protests and clashes across East Jerusalem and the West Bank initially resulted in the deaths of three Palestinians. The death of one of the injured from Friday and the killing of another Palestinian during protests on Saturday, July 31, raised the Palestinian death toll to five. However, the crisis worsened on Friday evening when a Palestinian armed with a knife entered the home of an Israeli family in a West Bank settlement, killing a grandfather in his seventies and two of his children aged 40 and 45, while seriously injuring the 68-year-old grandmother. The 19-year-old assailant, who was shot and wounded by a soldier living nearby, was arrested and claimed he carried out the attack to 'defend the holy sanctuary.' The killing of three members of the Israeli family, who had gathered for one of their grandchildren's birthday celebrations, has shocked public opinion in Israel. Three grandchildren of the Solomon family were present during the attack, but their mother, the daughter-in-law of the family, managed to quickly throw the children into a room and hide them from the assailant, while this young woman heard the cries of the adults being killed in the hall and kitchen for several long minutes. The Israeli Prime Minister stated, 'The terrorist act committed by a deranged human-like animal with blind hatred has saddened everyone... and the house (of the parents) of this terrorist will soon be destroyed.' The Palestinian Authority, in protest against the situation and as a warning, cut off 'all communication and coordination channels' with Israel on Friday, but Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated on Sunday, 'We will manage our lives without this cooperation.' Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council will hold a meeting on Tuesday, August 2, to discuss the crisis. The Quartet, a group supporting Middle East peace that includes the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, has called on Israel and Jordan to cooperate and find a solution to calm the situation. Ayman Safadi, the Jordanian Foreign Minister, whose country manages the Al-Aqsa trust in cooperation with the Palestinian Islamic Waqf, stated on Saturday, 'The crisis will be resolved when Israel retracts the steps it has taken.'