Israel arrested Adnan Gheith, governor of the Jerusalem District of the Palestinian Authority, sometime in the night between Feb. 26 and 27. On the backdrop of growing tensions over the Temple Mount compound and Al-Aqsa Mosque, Gheith was one of many senior officials arrested, including Waqf Council chairman Sheikh Abdel Azzam Salhab, in response to a Feb. 22 incident in which thousands of Muslim worshippers broke into the Bab al-Rahma (Gate of Merci, or Golden Gate) structure and held a mass prayer service there.

Israel shut down the building in 2003 upon the order of the chief of the Central Command, later backed up by an administrative order from the Jerusalem District Court. The argument was that activities taking place at the site were connected with the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement (which has since been outlawed) and Hamas. The building has been locked since then and worshippers are denied entry. There were no protests when the building was first closed, nor were there any problems at the site during the Temple Mount riots of 2015 and 2017.

Israel is convinced that the Palestinians’ seizure of the Gate of Merci at this point in time had been planned well in advance by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf (custodian of Muslim holy sites) with Jordanian knowledge. At the order of Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Waqf was recently expanded from 11 to 18 representatives, with the seven new members representing the PA. The change in the group’s composition was unusual, and can be taken as evidence of a change in Jordan’s policy. Ever since control of Al-Aqsa Mosque was transferred to the kingdom after the 1967 Six-Day War, Jordan has been an ardent protector of its rights and responsibilities over the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. So far, the kingdom has allowed no one much room to maneuver there so as not to risk its control of the compound.

One of the new members of the Waqf is Fatah activist Hathem Abdel Qadr. In a Feb. 24 interview with the Palestinian press, he noted that the Waqf Council has a meticulous strategic plan “to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem” and that the Gate of Mercy is one of its focal points. According to him, close cooperation between the Palestinians and Jordan has put Israel into a situation where it has no choice but to allow worshippers to break into the Gate of Mercy structure. “As evidence of this, Israeli security forces did not prevent worshippers from entering the Gate of Mercy compound on Friday,” he noted, and he was right. Both the police and the military refused to act.