A large number of policemen have posed in main gates and crossings around the old city in east Jerusalem on early Friday, as it is the first Friday for prayers since the Muslims Holy Month of Ramadan.

At the Damascus Gate, groups of Muslim elders were asked to show residency cards or ID cards when they got across the security checks.

"It took me four hours this morning from Hebron to Jerusalem," a 24-year-old young man Ahmed who was turned down to the entrance, grumbled depressingly, "What can I do? It is the Israeli people who control this holy place."

Among the Palestinians from the west bank, only those who hold Israeli residency aged over 40 are allowed to enter into the Al- Aqsa Mosque in the old city.

An armed police ordered Ahmed to stand by the fence with a couple of youths and to wait for the further inquiry.

Palestinian women possessing permits will be able to enter the Temple Mount compound without hindrance.

Some 100,000 worshippers were expected on the Temple Mount on Friday, witnesses said.

"There is no tension till now. The situation is good," a police officer Rony told Xinhua reporters in front of a gate to the Temple Mount, "But we have to keep alert, it is just the beginning of the day."

A command room has been set up near the Western Wall to oversee police operations. Transportation police officers have been tasked with manning major roads leading to Jerusalem and directing to the buses and cars to designated parking lots in the city.

Jerusalem District Commissioner Ilan Franco told Army Radio that the police had not received any specific warnings of planned terror attacks, but that Jerusalem, a city revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, was "an attractive target."

A full curfew will be imposed on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip Friday afternoon, and will continue until after Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, which begins sundown Sunday, Oct. 1.

Source: Xinhua