Clashes broke out at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem yesterday when police blocked Palestinian worshippers from entering.

Extremist Jewish groups had been mobilising to take over the disputed holy site — known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary — for the days of the Sukkot festival, which lasts until next Thursday.

Police stopped the Muslims entering the site but let the zionists into the mosque.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the violence erupted when several dozen masked Palestinian began throwing stones at the police, lightly injuring three.

Police chased the protesters, who barricaded themselves inside the mosque and continued to throw objects — including one petrol bomb that failed to ignite — at police, Ms Samri said.

Mosque security told the Palestinian Information Centre (PIC) that police had stormed the mosque early yesterday morning, attacking elderly Muslim worshippers “with flashbang grenades and rubber bullets.”

Police launched baton charges to clear the courtyard, injuring a number of Palestinians, PIC said.

Since then police placed a “tight military siege” on the compound, refusing to let in any women or girls or men under 60.

The site — the holiest in Judaism and third-holiest in Islam — is a frequent flashpoint in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while tensions have been heightened by Israel’s murderous assault on the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Israel for the friction at the holy site, saying that it was deliberately raising tensions there.

“The Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa mosque, led by settlers and extremists, and under the auspices of the Israeli government, have recently increased and intensified,” he said.

An Israeli Tourism Ministry decision earlier this week to expand the entrance to the Jerusalem site was condemned by Palestinian officials as a unilateral change in the status of the sensitive holy site.

Palestinians are also concerned by the expansion of railway lines between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, fearing that it forms part of a bid to build more illegal settlements at the expense of Al-Aqsa and other Muslim holy sites.