Jerusalem tense, full alert sounded

JERUSALEM, January 10: About 250,000 worshippers prayed at Jerusalem's holiest Muslim shrine to mark the second Friday of the fasting month ...

JERUSALEM, January 10: About 250,000 worshippers prayed at Jerusalem8217;s holiest Muslim shrine to mark the second Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan amid heavy Israeli police presence.

Hundreds of police officers, some on horseback, sealed off streets ringing the old city, where the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam8217;s third holiest shrine, is located.

At an Army checkpoint leading into Jerusalem from the West bank town of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers diverted traffic and chased young Palestinian men and old women through the fields as they tried to bypass the barrier.

quot;It8217;s like a battlefield,quot; remarked Ahmed Ali Shehadeh, adding it took him 90 minutes to get to the mosque from his home, four miles away.

Palestinians from the West bank and Gaza strip usually need special entry permits to enter Israel, including Jerusalem. On the Fridays of Ramadan, the Army exempts men older than 45 and women older than 40 from obtaining permits. Younger people have to travel in special buses from the checkpoints to get through.

West bankers comprised the bulk of the crowd on Friday.

quot;The Israelis say they8217;re making it easy for us to reach Al Aqsa, but it8217;s a lie,quot; said Adnan Sbeih, 27. Sbeih was turned back at a checkpoint in Bethlehem, but walked around it and picked up another taxi.

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Majed Abdul Aziz, a red-bearded Sufi scholar who lived in Chicago for 14 years, said people flock to Al Aqsa because each prayer there is worth 50 prayers elsewhere. Sufis are religious scholars who avoid any political influence.

Prayer leader Yousef Salameh, who is an under-secretary in the Palestinian Religious Affairs Ministry, kept his sermon to religion and avoided politics, unlike last week8217;s speaker, Sheikh Hamed Bitawi of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Salameh said he was quot;surprisedquot; by the two-year jail sentence handed on Thursday to a Jewish extremist who posted drawings of Prophet Mohammed as a pig in the West bank town of Hebron. quot;This spiteful woman8230;might be back on the streets in one month. Such actions by the Israeli government encourage Jewish extremists,quot; he said.

Police recently foiled plans by Jewish extremists to throw a pig8217;s head into the Al Aqsa compound during Friday prayers. Pigs are considered unclean by both Muslims and Jews.

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quot;We hold the Israeli government responsible for such provocations and warn that if an attack on Al Aqsa were to occur, a lot of blood would flow,quot; Salameh said. quot;God will destroy whoever wants to damage Al Aqsa.quot;

Israeli police were also on high alert because of renewed warnings that Islamic militants would carry out attacks during Ramadan, a time of increased religious fervour when Muslims refrain from eating, drinking and smoking from sunrise to sundown.