Jerusalem, Israel - Israeli police have arrested and released a group of ultra-right-wing Jewish fundamentalists who planned to spark an ethnic bloodbath by attacking the holiest Muslim site in Jerusalem.
The Government released news of the plot as hundreds of other right-wing Jews blocked roads and intersections in protest at plans to withdraw Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Police arrested more than 300 protesters - mainly religious teenagers linked to the settler movement - but failed to prevent the protest in parts of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, even though organisers had signalled it.
The blockades, in some cases involving burning tyres placed on the road, led to massive disruption for commuters driving home.
There were some reports of minor scuffles between motorists and demonstrators, but police used minimal force handling the protesters.
News of the plot to attack the Dome of the Rock was released on Monday after a suppression order, in place for several days, was lifted.
Authorities said they had arrested three young men from an ultra-orthodox Hasidic sect who planned to buy a shoulder-fire missile and fire it at the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site in Islam.
They then talked of attacking police with hand grenades, before committing suicide.
The Government said it released the three because there was no evidence they had taken steps to carry out the plot.
The site is holy to both Muslims and Jews. The Dome of the Rock is built in the precincts of the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans 2000 years ago. The site, in Jerusalem's Old City, is at the centre of intense political and national tensions.
In September 2000, then opposition leader Ariel Sharon's insistence on entering the site with his supporters sparked days of Palestinian rioting that led to the present round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Muslims have warned that any attack on the site would spark massive unrest around the world.
The Israeli security agency Shin Bet has warned repeatedly in recent months of plots among right-wing Jews to attack the site in the hope of sparking anarchy, aimed at derailing Prime Minister Sharon's Gaza "disengagement" plan.
Members of the mainly religious Israeli right believe that for the Messiah to come to earth, Jews must occupy and control the entire biblical land of Israel - usually defined as everything between the Euphrates River in Iraq and the Nile in Egypt - and rebuild the destroyed temple in Jerusalem.
Mr Sharon's plans to withdraw troops and 8000 settlers from the Gaza Strip have enraged the Messianic Jews, who have usually been funded and armed by the state and protected by the police and army.