JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Israel said Saturday it would prevent a fringe right-wing Jewish group from inflaming Muslim sensitivities by ensuring it did not place a new cornerstone on the sensitive Jerusalem Temple Mount holy site.
Palestinians warned that attempts by the Jewish Temple Mount Faithful group to carry the 4.5-ton stone into the compound -- known to Arabs as al-Haram al-Sharif -- Sunday would outrage Muslims and could fan the flames of their 10-month-old uprising.
Acting Israeli Public Security Minister Ruby Rivlin told Reuters.``We have no intention of letting anyone go up the hill or hurting Muslim people. There will be no ceremony there.
Rivlin said responsibility for confrontation at Jerusalem's Temple Mount Sunday rested with Islamic and Palestinian groups who compared the Jewish activists' plan to September's visit to the compound by Ariel Sharon.
Palestinians say Sharon, then opposition leader and now prime minister, defiled the site and triggered 10 months of violence in which more than 600 people have died.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction called for a ``day of rage'' and urged Palestinians to mass Sunday at the site to thwart any effort by the Jewish group to lay the corner stone as a first step to re-establishing the ancient Jewish Temple.
``This is very, very serious. It's pouring fuel on the fire,'' said senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, whose warnings were echoed in Egypt by Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.
Thousand of Jews were expected to be at the Western Wall -- the outer wall of the Temple Mount -- for prayers Sunday, the anniversary of the destruction of the first and second ancient Jewish temples.
Jews commemorate the occasion with the fasting day of Tisha B'Av.
Israel's high court upheld a decision Wednesday to ban the ultranationalist Jewish group from laying the cornerstone at the site holy to both religions, but said they could display the marble stone near the compound.
Intifadha Rages on
Tensions meanwhile remained high late Saturday, with the Israeli occupation army reporting it had fired tank shells at the West Bank town of Salfit, near Nablus, alledging Palestinians fired at the Jewish settlement of Ariel, damaging two houses.
Palestinian officials said Israeli occupation forces fired 14 tank shells at Palestinian security locations north and west of Salfit, wounding three civilians, four policemen and causing extensive damage.
Israel challenged the Palestinian Authority to do more to stop Palestinian resistance bomb-makers after Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a building allegedly used by Palestinians to produce arms.
The occupation army said it struck near Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip early Saturday alledgedly in retaliation for three mortar bombs fired at a Jewish settlement in the coastal strip.
Thousands of Hamas group supporters trampled on Israeli flags at an evening rally in the West Bank town of Nablus and pumped bullets into the air as they vowed to take revenge for Israel's assassination of militant Salah Darwaza last week.
Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops closed the main road linking Nablus to other West Bank areas and Jerusalem Saturday, while lifting an overnight curfew imposed on two nearby villages after Israeli-Palestinian clashes.
An Israeli occupation army spokeswoman would only confirm the closure of one road leading north from Nablus into the Jordan Valley.
The occupation army said it had returned fire Saturday after Palestinians shot at its forces from within and east of the West Bank town of Hebron, Al-Khalil, near the village of Bani Na'im. Voice of Palestine radio said one man in Bani Na'im was gravely hurt.
HIT-LIST PUBLISHED
A Palestinian Resistance group meanwhile published a hit-list of 33 Israeli rabbis and settler leaders Saturday and warned it could target them at any time.
The group, the Popular Army Front, Return Battalions, said it was ``in open battle with this rabble,'' which it accused of inciting violence and carrying out attacks against Palestinians.
In the West Bank town of Tulkarm, 3,000 people marched to demand the death sentence for five Palestinians accused of treason and collaboration with Israel over the killing in December of Thabet Thabet, a Fatah leader.
At a court hearing Saturday, one of the five admitted sending a message on his mobile phone to an Israeli intelligence officer telling him when Thabet left home on the day of his killing.
The case against the other four, who pleaded not guilty to treason, collaboration and murder, was to continue Monday.
Arafat's office said he would leave Gaza for a one-day visit to Morocco Sunday for talks with King Mohammed on the security situation.
Meanwhile, Arab experts are due to gather Sunday in Damascus to discuss reviving the Arab boycott of Israel.
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PHOTO CAPTION:
Earlier this week, the Temple Mount Faithful petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court for permission to place a cornerstone in the Old City of Jerusalem as a symbolic first step towards building a Third Temple.The Supreme Court blocked their request to place it on the actual site where Jews believe the Biblical Temple stood, but is allowing them to put it in a parking lot near an entrance to the Old City.