Israel Investigates Plot On Mosque

Two Jewish extremists were questioned on suspicion they planned to fire a missile into the Al Aqsa Mosqe, Islam's third holiest shrine, in hopes of disrupting the planned Gaza withdrawal, police said Monday.

A police statement initially said the two were placed into house arrest. However, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby later clarified that the suspects have since been released. Israeli radio stations reported that the two would not be indicted because they never carried out any part of their plan and expressed regret during their interrogation.

A third suspect, a 61-year-old businessman, was questioned about a plan to fly a model plane fitted with a camera over the Al Aqsa Mosque to provoke Muslim worshippers, police said.

The mosque and a second Muslim shrine sit on a hilltop compound captured by Israel when it took Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The compound, where the ancient biblical Jewish temples once stood, is the most hotly disputed site in the Holy Land.

Extremist Jews opposed to Israel's planned Gaza Strip withdrawal have threatened to attack or storm the shrine in the summer, in order to divert police and soldiers from Gaza, and thereby stop the pullout. An attack on the site would be liable to ignite violence across the region.

In April, police barred Jewish anti-pullout activists from rallying at the site, fearing a mass gathering would set off confrontations between Jews and Muslims.

Israeli police were also on alert Monday for traffic disruptions by opponents of the Gaza pullout. Activists have threatened to block traffic at major intersections, in a dry run for acts of civil disobedience meant to divert police from the evacuation once it's in process. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that police confiscated hundreds of tires apparently stashed by anti-pullout activists for use later in the day.

Meanwhile, government and security officials said Israel plans to start extending its West Bank separation barrier around its largest settlement bloc by mid-May — construction that would in effect expand Jerusalem's boundaries and cut off Palestinians from the city they seek as a future capital.

The new segment would put the Maaleh Adumim settlement, with more than 30,000 residents, on the "Israeli" side of the barrier. Israel's Cabinet approved the Maaleh Adumim loop in February, but didn't announce a date for the start of construction.The section around Maaleh Adumim is to be built before Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip this summer. International pressure to resume Mideast peace talks is expected to intensify after the pullout. Completing the barrier around Jerusalem would establish facts on the ground regarding the fate of the city — a key issue in final settlement negotiations.

Israel is already building sections of the barrier elsewhere on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Once the barrier rings the entire city, it would cut off eastern Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their future capital, from its West Bank hinterland.

In related news, the Haaretz daily reported on its website that Israel's Supreme Court has lifted temporary injunctions it issued two months ago against building the barrier near Ariel, another major West Bank settlement bloc.

The army will be allowed to resume construction until June, when the court panel will be expanded to nine judges from three to review Palestinian petitions against the barrier's route near Ariel, the report said. Israel's state prosecutor's office asked 10 days ago to have the injunctions lifted, Haaretz said.

Israel says it is building the 425-mile barrier to wall out suicide bombers and other attackers who slip into Israel from the West Bank. Palestinians say the barrier is a thinly veiled land grab because it dips into the West Bank in some areas, and the World Court at The Hague, in a non-binding ruling, has deemed it to violate international law because it encroaches on the West Bank.

Asked to comment on the construction of the Maaleh Adumim portion of the barrier, U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Patin said: "Our position on the fence hasn't changed. We accept Israel's right to do what is necessary to defend its citizens. But to the extent to it encroaches on disputed territority, it concerns us."

Israel is also moving ahead with plans to build 3,650 housing units between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem. That plan has so irked the U.S. that President George W. Bush criticized it during an April news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the president's Texas ranch.

Senior Palestinian officials were not immediately available for comment on the construction of the Maaleh Adumim segment.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man who tried to stab a soldier at a checkpoint near the town of Tulkarem, the army said. Soldiers ordered him to stop and fired in the air before shooting him, the army said.