Jerusalem’s grand mufti detained after deadly Temple Mount shooting

Israeli police detained the senior Muslim cleric of Jerusalem after an attack in the city that left two Israeli police officers dead, a son of the mufti of Jerusalem said.

The grand mufti of the city, Mohammed Hussein, was detained for questioning Friday at a police station in the Old City, his son, Omar, told The Associated Press.

According to the news site NRG, the mufti was called in to answer questions over his call to worshippers after the attack to ignore a temporary ban on prayer and public gathering at the Temple Mount compound and the Haram al Sharif mosque. Police closed the area after two Israeli police officers were killed there and another was wounded, allegedly by three Arab-Israeli men of Palestinian heritage whom security forces killed at the scene of the attack.

Hussein called the closure “an escalation and aggression against al-Aqsa,” the Arab-language name of the compound.

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, condemned the attack in a telephone conversation he initiated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.