Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Jordanian capital on Friday to condemn Israel’s latest security measures at a highly sensitive holy site in annexed east Jerusalem.
A crowd estimated to number more than 8,000 turned out for a demonstration called by Islamist movements and leftist parties in Jordan, which has a 2004 peace treaty with Israel.
In the capital, the protesters set off on a march from the Al-Husseini Grand Mosque in central Amman.
“With our soul, with our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Al-Aqsa,” the mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City at the heart of the dispute, they chanted.
“We will go to Al-Aqsa in our millions as martyrs,” vowed the crowd, whose country is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and where more than half of the population is of Palestinian origin, as protesters set ablaze and trampled an Israeli flag.
In Jerusalem, Palestinian protesters on Friday clashed with Israeli forces outside the Old City.
Israeli ministers have decided not to order the removal of metal detectors erected at entrances to the Haram al-Sharif mosques compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, following an attack nearby a week ago that killed two policemen.
In anticipation of fresh protests, Israeli police barred men under 50 from entering Jerusalem’s Old City for the weekly Friday prayers.
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