Jordan protests to Israel after envoy blocked from holy site

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Jordan has summoned the Israeli ambassador to Amman to protest a move by Israeli police to block the Jordanian envoy from entering a volatile holy site in Jerusalem. Tuesday’s incident quickly escalated tensions between the neighbors and reflected the heightened sensitivity around the sacred compound under Israel’s new ultranationalist government. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said its ambassador to Israel was blocked from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, the third-holiest site in Islam. The site, sitting on a sprawling plateau also home to the iconic golden Dome of the Rock, is revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount. The sacred compound is administered by Jordanian religious authorities.