A ministerial committee of the Arab league held an emergency meeting in Amman on Thursday to discuss the situation at the Al Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount.
Committee members include representatives of the Palestinian Authority, Egypt Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and is chaired by Jordan. A representative of the UAE was also present.
This was the fourth time the committee met to discuss religious tensions in Jerusalem, since its establishment last year.
In a statement, organizers said the meeting was convened to discuss the dangerous situation in Jerusalem and around the Al Aqsa mosque, to stop Israel's increased aggression and to return calm.
The members agreed to continue their coordination on the matter, the official statement ending the meeting said.
King Abdullah II was expected to meet with the visiting ministers later on Thursday.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that the Muslim holy sights in Jerusalem are a matter of consensus and beyond political considerations.
"We demand an end to the aggression against the Al Aqsa Mosque and that the status quo be maintained," Safadi said.
We will not accept any action against our holy sites or any attempt to alter the identity of Jerusalem," he said.
Safadi also demanded that non-Muslims be banned from the site during the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan, a ruling Israel considers annually, based on the security situation.
The possible exclusion of non-Muslims from Temple Mount was met with anger from right-wing politicians.
Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Jewish Zionist Party said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, had made a ridiculous decision from the political and security perspectives and a capitulation in the face of the Arab lie, claiming Jews are to blame for the latest outbreak of violence.
Bennett's Yamina Party said in response that the decision will be made based on security considerations and the advice of the security services, as it has been made every year in the past.
In its statement, the party said that in the previous year the area was closed to Jewish visitors for 19 days at the order of then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a result of pressure put upon him by the Hamas.
Jordanian officials have led a combative approach to Israel's actions in recent days.
Safadi summoned the Israeli Charge d'Affairs to receive a letter addressed to Bennett protesting the conduct on Temple Mount and in his address to the Jordanian parliament, Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh praised Palestinians for hurling stones at Israeli forces, who "desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque," supported by their government.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meanwhile, met with a delegation of senior U.S. State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Yael Lempert, in Jerusalem on Thursday and told them that Israel was dealing with extreme Islamist terror, which aims to sow violence fear and chaos.
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Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meets Senior State Department officials on Thursday
(Photo: U.S. embassy )
"We call on leaders in the region to express themselves responsibly," Lapid said.
"Israel has and will continue to maintain the status quo on Temple Mount and has no plans to change it," Lapid told the visiting American officials.
The Foreign Minister said that in the first two weeks of the holy month of Ramadan, hundreds of thousands of Muslims prayed at the Al Aqsa Mosque and were only disturbed by extremists and supporters of the Hamas terror group that have taken control of the site, "desecrated its sanctity and disrupted the prayers when they hurled fire bombs, stones and firecrackers."
" We will not, under any circumstances, accept rocket fire from Gaza, targeting Israel. Hamas and the world at large must know that Israel will take whatever action is needed to protect its citizens," he said, referencing the recent rocket attacks from Gaza, on Monday and again on Wednesday.