TENSIONS ARE RUNNING DANGEROUSLY HIGH AT JERUSALEM’S AL-AQSA MOSQUE

Winchester, VA – Reuters reports that United Nations Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov issued a warning to Jerusalem that a solution needed to be found to the conflict surrounding the Al-Aqsa mosque before the arrival of Friday prayers, lest the conflict escalate even further. Tensions rose when in response to a July 14 shooting which claimed the lives of two Israeli police guards, Israel installed metal detectors at the mosque. The Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest site in the Islamic faith. Since the metal detectors went up, some have refused to go through them, holding their prayers outside in the street and protesting violently. The Associated Press reports that Israel responded to this call early today by removing the metal detectors and replacing them with “smart check” technologies, such as cameras which can display hidden objects on a person.