Al-Aqsa Mosque

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on July 24 that Israel is headed towards isolation because of measures imposed at the al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem.

"Equating the Muslims who come for worship with terrorists is a great eclipse of reason," Erdoğan said at a news conference at the Esenboğa Airport after returning from a two-day visit to the Gulf region.

A top aide to US President Donald Trump was due in Israel Monday in a bid to ease tensions over new security measures at a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site, a US official said, according to Al Arabia. 

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu criticized Israel's "intervention" at the al-Aqsa mosque, which has led to the escalation of tensions in Jerusalem. 

"The right to faith and worship is the basic right of all people," Kılıçdaroğlu said on his official Twitter account on July 23.

As diplomatic efforts intensify to ease the tensions in Jerusalem between Palestinians and Israel's following violence near a holy site, the Turkish and Egyptian foreign ministers spoke on the phone on July 23, downplaying the diplomatic disputes between the two countries. 

As diplomatic efforts intensify to ease the tensions in Jerusalem between Palestinians and Israel's following violence near a holy site, the Turkish and Egyptian foreign ministers spoke on the phone on July 23, downplaying the diplomatic disputes between the two countries. 

The Turkish and Egyptian foreign ministers spoke on the phone on July 23 on the recent tension over Israeli restrictions around Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to diplomatic sources.      
  

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged Israeli security forces to avoid using violence in the fresh unrest at a holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem and act in line with international law and fundamental human values on July 23.

Turkey's President Erdoğan on July 22 called for an immediate end to Israel's new restrictions at the compound of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

"Metal detectors and other restrictions should be immediately lifted and returned to the status quo. Everyone should be guard against provocations at this sensitive time," Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a written statement. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on July 21 that all contacts with Israel have been suspended until it commits to lift the recent measures taken at Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

Abbas, in a speech broadcast this evening on Palestinian television, rejected the Israeli installation of metal detectors at the gates of the Al-Aqsa compound. 

As tensions mount in Jerusalem after new Israeli security measures at the highly sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has urged calm, stressing the Islamic world's sensitivity on the issue.      

"Their implementation is wrong," Yıldırım said about the Israeli measures.