The Times of Israel reports: Israeli police are to boost their presence at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount compound for a Jewish day of mourning commemorating the destruction of ancient temples there, a spokesman said.
“Hundreds of extra police will be carrying out security measures in and around the Old City of Jerusalem” on Tisha B’Av, which begins on Saturday night and ends 25 hours later, Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement.
Rosenfeld said thousands of Jews were expected to visit the Western Wall during the day.
Advocates for prayer rights for Jews at the esplanade, the holiest site in Judaism and known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam, have called on Jews to visit the sensitive area.
Jews are allowed to visit but not to pray there, under arrangements agreed by Israel after it captured the area from Jordan in the 1967 war, but the site has been the scene of regular incidents.
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