The Israeli police have installed new security cameras at the entrances to Jerusalem’s holy al-Aqsa Mosque as observers began indicating it was considering alternatives to the metal detectors at the shrine that set off weeks of violence in the region some three months ago.
The cameras were set up after the Awqaf (Endowment) authorities called for allowing Muslim worshipers to enter al-Aqsa Mosque without being searched.
Three months earlier Israel’s metal detectors and security scaffolding installed at the main entrances to the site sparked days of tension with thousands of worshipers performing their daily prayers outside the Mosque in protest at the Israeli measures.
In response to the protests following which Israel was forced to remove the security installations Israel’s Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan proceeded with a plan to use innovative technology to tighten police grip around the site.
Old cameras were thus removed and replaced by highly-developed cameras aiming to keep tabs on the slightest movement of Palestinian and Muslim worshipers at the holy site.
A senior official from the Awqaf department told the Palestinian Information Center that the cameras were secretly put in and without prior notifications.
