OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, May 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Palestinian Authority warned Thursday, May 15, that Israeli Interior Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi pledge to soon allow Jews to pray inside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound even without an agreement with the Palestinians, would only set the region further ablaze.

"We cannot tolerate a situation in which worshippers of all faiths are not allowed to pray on Temple Mount. The time is close, much closer than one thinks, when Jews will be able to pray on this holy site," Hanegbi told the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday, May 14.

"The site will be reopened as part of an agreement (with the Palestinian authorities), but if there is no agreement, it will be done without one," he stressed.

Israel claims that Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site was built on the so-called Temple Mount, an allegation refuted by scores of historians.

Hanegbi is from the radical branch of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party, which sits in a government coalition with two extreme-right nationalist religious parties.

The Israeli Yediot Ahornoth reported that the Israeli tourism minister was planning to visit the mosque’s compound later on Thursday, accompanied by a throng of Jews.

It said the Israeli commanding officer of occupied Jerusalem, Gen. Mickey Levy, vowed three months ago to open the compound before Jewish worshippers once the U.S.-led war on Iraq came to an end.

Following the provocative visit of the then opposition leader Sharon to the mosque on September 28, 2000, which sparked Al-Aqsa Intifada, Israeli police banned issuing permits to Jews to have access to the mosque.

The Palestinian Authority, for its part, dismissed the Israeli pledge as “a serious escalation,” issuing a stark warning that such a decision would further explode the situation in the region.

“We warn Israel against step towards implementing this promise, because violence would further spiral as a result,” Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told AFP.