Israeli Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said Monday he was hoping to set up extra surveillance equipment in Jerusalem's disputed mosque compound in a bid to prevent an attack by Jewish extremists.
Hanegbi, who has previously warned that extremist groups could try and attack the compound in order to disrupt the planned pullout of the Gaza Strip, said that he did not have the funds to swamp the area with security forces.
"On the other hand, I hope to obtain the funds to provide electronic surveillance in the form of cameras in areas where it is not possible to deploy our people," he told Israeli public radio.
Hanegbi warned late last month of a high risk of an attack against Islamic holy places on the compound, which is known as the Temple Mount by Jews and Al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims.
The compound shelters the Dome of the Rock (Omar Mosque) and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, as well as the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jews.
The minister said that the threat was only posed by a tiny minority but that it was a real cause for concern.
"A fraction of the population have demonstrated in recent months more and more frustration with the advance of the political process which they regard as an apocalyptic scenario," he said.
"We have already seen in the past that these kind of feelings lead to action against the Temple Mount." The internal security service Shin Beth managed to foil a bomb plot at the compound in the early 1980s by extremists opposed to the peace deal with Egypt.
Yehuda Etzion, one of the organizers of that plot, recently called for "the Temple Mount to be cleansed of the presence of Muslims." Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans to dismantle all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four small enclaves in the northern West Bank have been vigorously condemned by nationalist groups who have accused him of planning a forcible "transfer of Jews."