In a new twist, a Waqf Islamic Authority security guard was arrested Monday morning in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount.
Israeli security personnel were forced to use pepper spray to bring the situation under control.
The incident occurred when Israel Border Guard Police refused entry to a group of Arab minors at the Lions Gate on the grounds they were going to disturb the peace. Usually, it is Jews who are refused entry to the site on such grounds.
The Waqf Authority guard intervened and began to argue with the Israel Police officers.
When they refused to allow the entry, he then tried to attack them, according to security sources. Israeli police immediately arrested the guard and defended themselves with pepper spray when he tried to attack them.
Security footage from the scene also shows that a number of other people in the area, including several other Waqf security officials, were also affected by the spray as well.
Visits by tourists to the site continued uninterrupted following the incident.
It is highly unusual for Israeli forces to arrest Muslims at the site, and completely rare for Waqf officials to ever be taken into custody.
In a special arrangement made with the State of Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the Kingdom of Jordan was granted de facto authority over the Temple Mount – the holiest site in the Jewish faith, and the third holiest site in Islam – through the Islamic Waqf Authority.
That privilege has been exceedingly abused by the Islamic religious authority which has allowed terrorist clerics in their weekly sermons on Fridays at the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock to incite their followers to carry out murderous attacks on Israeli Jews.