Israeli Police Detain Five at Jerusalem's Temple Mount

Israeli police arrested five people on Tuesday, two Israeli Jews and three Arabs, for disturbing the peace and attacking police at the compound where the Al-Aqsa mosque is located, police told AFP.

The arrests came as a group of rightwing Israeli Jews visited the compound, known as the Temple Mount by Jews and the Haram al-Sharif by Muslims. It is the third holiest site in Islam and is revered as Judaism's most sacred place.

"Two Jews from a radical rightwing movement were arrested this morning while trying to disturb the peace on the plaza," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

"One of the two, Moshe Feiglin, had started to pray, and the second had lain down on the ground," she added.

Feiglin is a well-known Israeli rightwing activist who leads an extreme nationalist branch within the Likud party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Three Arabs, a woman and two men, were also held for questioning," Samri added, without specifying whether the three were Palestinians or Arab citizens of Israel.

"The woman tried to stab a police officer with a knife," Samri said, adding that police would "be firm with anyone seeking to create provocations during Sukkot," the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, which began on Sunday night.

Azzam al-Khatib, director of the Islamic Waqf (Religious Endowments) body that oversees the site, told AFP that around 130 "extremist Jews" had entered the compound early Tuesday.

"This is the result of the calls made by extremist politicians and these actions complicate things in Jerusalem," he said.

The Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound houses both the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques, and is venerated by Jews as the site where King Herod's temple once stood before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

It is one of the most sensitive sites in the already contentious city of Jerusalem, and clashes frequently break out between Palestinians and Israeli security forces at the compound.