Jerusalem, Israel - Police scuffled Wednesday with an Israeli Islamic leader and several of his followers near a disputed holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem where Muslims have been protesting excavations and repairs.
Raed Salah, the fiery leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and six supporters were taken for questioning after "a brawl" with police guarding work near the hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, home of the Al Aqsa mosque complex, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
It wasn't clear whether charges would be brought, Rosenfeld said.
Three Palestinian youths were questioned on suspicion of throwing stones at an Israeli bus near the Old City, but there was no other trouble, he added.
Rosenfeld said about 2,000 Israeli police — double the usual number — were on duty in the city to quell any violent protest against Israel's plan to build a new walkway up to the compound where Islamic tradition says Muhammad ascended to heaven and which Jews revere as the site of their ancient temples.
Israel says the project is needed to replace a centuries-old earthen ramp that partially collapsed in a snowstorm three years ago. It has promised the work would cause no harm to Islamic holy sites, but those assurances have not calmed Muslim outrage over the project.
On Wednesday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Islamic nations to retaliate against Israel. Khamenei did not say what sort of response he intended, but he said the Islamic world should make Israel "regret" what it is doing.
Palestinian leaders have also harshly condemned the work, and Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Tuesday, when preparatory excavations began.
Seeking to head off confrontation, police for a second day restricted access to the Al Aqsa compound to Israeli Arabs and east Jerusalem residents over the age of 45.
Construction work is expected to last eight months.
During a visit to the site Tuesday, Saleh called for an Islamic revolt to stop the project.
"The danger in Jerusalem has increased," he said. "It is high time for the uprising of the Islamic people."
Israeli officials say Islamic radicals are exploiting the issue to whip up hostile sentiment, but critics say the government is handing warring Palestinian factions the perfect opportunity to unite in the face of a common enemy.
"Each time the Palestinians engage in internal wars, our leaders have a special talent for uniting them against us," commentator Roni Shaked wrote Wednesday in the Yediot Ahronot daily. Trouble could have been averted by proper consultation with the Waqf, the Islamic trust which supervises the Noble Sanctuary, he wrote.
Waqf chairman Adnan Husseini said he and his colleagues first learned about the construction plans through media reports and warned the police and Jerusalem city council that the plan would spark fierce opposition.
"We warned them not to do it, but there was no coordination," he said. "They did not tell us."
Miri Eisin, spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the Islamic trust had been consulted.
"You don't start a project like this without having conversations with the Waqf," she said. "There was coordination along the way.
The Waqf has carried out its own controversial work at the site. In 1999, it opened a new exit to a chamber beneath the compound, and workers removed dozens of truckloads of rubble, drawing charges from Israeli archaeologists that the Waqf was destroying antiquities and violating the site's fragile status quo.
Israel has controlled the compound since 1967, when it captured east Jerusalem from Jordan, but has left its administration largely to Jordan and the Palestinians.
The hilltop is home to the Al Aqsa mosque and the golden-capped Dome of the Rock shrine, as well as to the original retaining walls of the second Jewish temple, including the Jewish shrine called the Western Wall.
When Israel opened a tunnel alongside the compound in 1996, it sparked clashes that killed 80 people. In 2000, when then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the site, the ensuing riots were followed by years of violence.