Israeli police have clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians inside Jerusalem's flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound after a far-right Jewish group announced plans to visit the site despite weeks of soaring tensions.

The planned visit by the Jewish group, including ultra-nationalist politicians, was to have taken place a week after the attempted assassination of one of its leading activists by a Palestinian gunman prompted Israel to close the site.

The al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, is in a compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif.

Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Jerusalem, said Israeli security forces briefly entered the compound as clashes broke out.

"In a rare move, we understand that Israeli security forces entered the mosque at al-Aqsa mosque," he said.

Israeli police told Al Jazeera that they had only entered briefly to close the door, but our correspondent said the move was likely to heighten tensions in the Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.

"There is still a lot of tension and a huge police presence here," our correspondent said. "These provocations, as it's seen by Palestinans at the al-Aqsa mosque, will certainly not do anything to calm the situation."

Israeli police said protesters threw stones and firecrackers at police officers minutes before the mosque compound opened.

"Police entered the area, pushed the masked rioters back, and they fled back into al-Aqsa. Police closed the front gate of the mosque but did not enter," said Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman.

Fears of uprising

Daily clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the streets of East Jerusalem and the Old City compound have stoked fears of a new Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.

Reuters television footage showed a few Israeli border policemen running through the compound while a group of Jewish worshippers and tourists waited outside to enter.

Our correspondent said the situation was still tense even if the compound had been reopened.

Describing the current impasse, our correspondent said Israeli action amounted to "a crackdown in occupied East Jerusalem".

Israeli officers used stun grenades to disperse the crowd and the situation was now under control, Rosenfeld said.

Omar Alkeswani, a Palestinian manager of al-Aqsa, said police entered the compound and that 20 people were wounded in the clashes.

On Tuesday, the Israeli government changed its criminal code, to make stone-throwing punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The clashes came amid continued tensions over right-wing Jewish demands to be able to pray inside the compound and the expansion of Israeli settlement building in east Jerusalem.
(Al Jazeera)