JERUSALEM — After days of violent protests, bloodshed and a diplomatic crisis with Jordan over the placement of metal detectors at the entrances to the Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, the Israeli government said early Tuesday it would remove them. Israel installed metal detectors at entry points to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem after two police officers were fatally shot on July 14, triggering the bloodiest clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in years. Israel's move came in the face of intensive international diplomacy seeking to prevent the dispute over the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, from sparking wider Palestinian unrest. Mansour said the Security Council should condemn in the strongest terms the closing of Al-Aqsa mosque for the first time since 1969, stressing that “Al Aqsa mosque should not be closed under any pretext.”

Israel’s U.N. The security Cabinet accepted "the recommendation of all the security bodies to change the inspection with metal detectors to a security inspection based on advanced technologies and other means," a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. Israel reached the decision to dismantle the metal detectors shortly after an end to a diplomatic standoff with Jordan, which administers the site, over a violent incident at a building housing Israeli embassy staff in Jordan's capital Amman. The BBC explains:



"Jordanian authorities wanted to question an Israeli security guard who Israel said shot dead a Jordanian who had attacked him with a screwdriver in a residence next to the embassy. The Israeli ambassador to Jordan, Einat Shlain, and the staff, including a security guard at the center of the fray, returned home soon after a telephone call between King Abdullah II of Jordan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Tuesday's decision to remove the metal detector gates was an about-turn after the rightist Netanyahu, wary of being seen to capitulate to Palestinian pressure, said on Sunday the devices would stay put.
The Israeli government says it will remove metal detectors and some cameras recently installed at the entrances to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem that resulted in a wave of protests and some deaths. Instead, less obtrusive surveillance means will be used.