Jordan said yesterday it will set up security cameras around Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound in the coming days to monitor any Israeli “violations”.
In October, US Secretary of State John Kerry endorsed a plan to install cameras at the site in a bid to calm repeated disturbances, after talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed.
But the Jordanian-run trust or “Waqf” that administers the site - which houses the famed golden Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque - then complained that Israeli police had blocked it from installing the cameras.
A “control centre” will be set up to monitor round-the-clock video surveillance of the compound, Jordan’s Islamic Affairs Minister Hayel Daoud said.
The footage will be broadcast online to “document all Israeli violations and aggressions”, he said in a statement, adding that no cameras would be installed inside mosques.
Clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces erupted at the compound in September amid fears among Muslims that Israel was planning to change rules governing the site.
The Israeli prime minister has said repeatedly there are no such plans.
The Al Aqsa clashes preceded a wave of violence that has killed 198 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese since October 1, according to an AFP count.
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