CAIRO, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss Israeli aggression over the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, the Arab League (AL) announced on Sunday.
The meeting, to be held at AL headquarters in Cairo, is requested by Jordan and supported by several Arab states to address "the latest Israeli aggressions and measures in Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque shrine," said AL spokesman Mahmoud Afifi.
Tensions between Israel and Palestinians have been rising since July 14 when Israel installed checkpoints and metal detectors at the entrances of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after three Israeli Arab gunmen shot dead two Israeli policemen near the site. The three were later killed by the Israeli police.
Since then, daily clashes have been erupting between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters at the gates of the mosque compound and elsewhere in West Bank.
In clashes during a massive protest on Friday, Israeli security forces killed three Palestinians and injured hundreds of others.
The AL has repeatedly condemned the Israeli practices at Al-Aqsa Mosque as a blatant breach of the right of worship and violation of relevant international laws and UN resolutions.
The recent Israeli measures led to new tensions in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has lasted for decades, since the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the Western-backed creation of Israel in 1948.
Israel is blamed by the international community for the current deadlock of the peace process because of its settlement expansion policy, which is rejected even by the United States, its strongest ally.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site for Jews. It has been a flashpoint site for Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the past decades since the 1967 Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital city in the light of the UN-proposed two-state solution.
