TWO mosque interiors on the site in Jerusalem known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews as the Temple Mount will be exempt from monitoring by security cameras, King Abdullah II of Jordan said yesterday.

Jordan proposed installing cameras at the site last month as a concession to Israel following weeks of sit-in protests by Palestinians.

But Israeli authorities have so far prevented the cameras from being installed at the site.

King Abdullah said yesterday: “To be very clear, there will be no cameras inside the mosque.”

The al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s holiest site after Mecca and Medina, has been the focus of a recent wave of protests and killings.

Protesters are angry at mooted plans to allow Jewish worshippers access to the site.

The Israeli government has claimed that such speculation has incited the wave of stabbing attacks against Israelis in East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and elsewhere.

Palestinians point to an increase in visits by extremist Jews backed by hard-line Israeli legislators.

Meanwhile, Egyptian naval forces shot dead 18-year-old fisherman Firas Mohammad Miqdad off the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip yesterday.

Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said Mr Miqdad was shot in the abdomen and died after being brought to a hospital.

Nezar Ayyash of Gaza’s fisherfolk’s union said Mr Miqdad was “working normally” when a nearby Egyptian navy gunboat shot him.

Egypt maintains a military blockade of Gaza’s southern border, strictly controlling the flow of people and goods in and out.