Police confront Israeli extremists

JERUSALEM – Thousands of Israeli police mobilized at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site Sunday but confronted only a handful of Jewish extremists intent on scuttling a Gaza pullout by tying up security forces.

In Gaza, militants fired dozens of mortar shells after Israeli forces killed three teenagers.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking on a plane taking him to today’s meeting with President Bush, said the mortar fire “is a flagrant violation of the understandings” reached at the February truce summit with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Police arrested 31 extremist Jews who planned to demonstrate Sunday in the Old City of Jerusalem, along with a West Bank Hamas leader who spoke at the holy site. But the 10,000 demonstrators pledged by organizers never materialized.

But officials acknowledged the protesters appeared to have met their goal of showing how easy it will be to divert troops from their main mission this summer – the planned Gaza pullout.

At the center of the drama is the most sensitive and hotly disputed holy site in the Holy Land – a hilltop known as the Temple Mount to Jews and Noble Sanctuary to Muslims.

It is where the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, including the shrine marking the spot where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven, is built over the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples.

Extremist Jews who make up a new group called “Revava,” a biblical word that means 10,000, say their goal is to storm the site in July when Israeli police and soldiers are in Gaza to evacuate 9,000 settlers – forcing leaders to pull the forces from Gaza, send them to Jerusalem and stop the pullout.

In anticipation of the protest, hundreds of Palestinians spent the night in the mosque compound, ready to confront Jewish demonstrators.