RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 17, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qorei on Thursday, March 17, asked Israel to thwart any strike against Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem), as Jewish extremists were plotting to storm the Muslims’ third holiest site to disrupt the planned withdrawal from Gaza Strip.

“We warn that the region will explode if there is any attack against Al-Aqsa,” Qorei was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as telling reporters after talks with visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Peterson.

“There is a serious threat that some Israeli fundamentalists want to attack Al-Aqsa and we tell Israeli security that you have enough time to stop any attack like that,” Qorei added.

Late Wednesday, March 16, Israel's Channel Two television showed a video of Jewish rabbis and far-right extremists discussing ways to occupy the Aqsa compound at a secret meeting in the Old City in Al-Quds.

The plotters, who the television said include representatives from 30 groups, mooted whether to stage the action before or after the start of the planned pullout from the occupied Gaza Strip that is due to begin in July.

“We must bring 100,000 people to the site,” said a rabbi identified as Chen Eliahu in the video of the meeting.

According to claims by Jewish extremist groups, the government's planned evacuation of northern West Bank settlements - deemed illegal by the UN Security Council - are the result of neglect and doing nothing to prevent it, Haaretz reported on Thursday.

In recent months, sources in the Israeli Shin Bet security service have expressed concern regarding possible missile or air bombing attack by individuals or groups on the compound with the purpose of scuttling the Gaza pullout plan, added the Israeli daily.

Dozens of Israeli police reinforcements were deployed around the compound in mid-February for fear of an attack by Jewish extremists.

Israeli occupation forces usually allow Jews to visit Aqsa compound in groups of a few dozen individuals, with Jewish prayer sessions banned at the site, in keeping with a government decision from 1967, said Haaretz.

The Chief Rabbinate and most ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionist halakhic authorities are opposed to Jews entering the site at all.

However, in recent years, the circle of rabbis who want to visit to the Muslims’ holy site has widened.

The settlers' rabbinical council, for example, has published a ruling that allows and encourages Jews to visit the site, according to Haaretz.

On April 12, 2004, at least 70 Palestinians were injured when Israeli forces stormed the mosque compound.

Archeologists have also warned that ongoing Israeli excavations weakened the foundations of Al-Aqsa mosque, cautioning it would not stand a powerful earthquake.

A part of the road leading to one of the mosque’s main gates collapsed in February, 2004, due to the destructive Israeli digging work.

On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a well-known leader of Jewish extremist Kach group, entered Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank town of Al-Khalil and emptied two clips of a machinegun into Muslim worshipers during the dawn prayer, killing at least 50 people and injuring 200 others.

Israeli occupation forces used tear gas and guarded the entrance of the mosque after they heard gunfire, which contributed to the difficulty of evacuating the dead and injured. Some eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers took part in the shooting afterward.

In another development, some 40 students from the West Bank Jewish settlement of Yeshiva attacked a group of eight Palestinian laborers on Thursday morning, wounding at least three of them, according to Haaretz.

Jewish students in Nahliel threw stones at the Palestinians, who were contracted to work in the West Bank settlement located west of Ramallah. One of the Palestinians was seriously wounded.

The settlers also threw stones, eggs and water bombs at Israeli police and troops who were guarding the site, lightly wounding a police officer.