Aljazeera

Tension remained high in Jerusalem on Friday as Israeli authorities imposed strict restrictions on Palestinians seeking to enter the Al-Aqsa mosque, preventing men under age 50 from coming into the compound, local media reported. 

No restrictions were in place for female worshippers, according to an Israeli police statement issued Thursday night. It added that nearly 3,000 policemen and border guard soldiers would be deployed across Jerusalem on Friday. Israel had closed Al-Aqsa compound Thursday following clashes that broke out after the shooting of a right-wing Jewish activist at a rally in Jerusalem the previous evening. Yehuda Glick, who survived the attack, was a proponent of strengthening Israeli control over the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, where some Jewish activists hope to eventually rebuild the Second Temple.

Mindful of the potential for conflict at Islam's third-holiest site provoking a cataclysmic confrontation, Israeli authorities have sought to maintain a delicate status quo at Al-Aqsa since occupying East Jerusalem in the war of 1967. Right-wing Jewish groups have been agitating ever more vocally against their government's restrictions on their access to the area — Glick was attacked at a conference of Israeli groups pressing to change the rules on what Israel calls the Temple Mount. For his part, Palestinian Authority President  Mahmoud Abbas called Al-Aqsa a “red line” and branded Israel's closure of access on Thursday an “act of war.” Al-Aqsa had provided the spark that ignited the last major Palestinian uprising — the second intifada — which began in August of 2000 with protests triggered by a controversial show of force on the Temple Mount by then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister.

On Thursday after Glick's shooting, Israeli forces shot and killed Mutaz Hijazi, a Palestinian man suspected in the assassination attempt. In response, various Palestinian factions called for a “Day of Rage” on Friday.