Israel committed to Al-Aqsa status quo: FM

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said yesterday that Israel was "committed" to the status quo at the flashpoint Jerusalem holy site at the heart of a recent wave of violence. "Muslims pray on the Temple Mount, non-Muslims only visit," Lapid said, using the Jewish term for the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the holiest place in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam. "There is no change, there will be no change -- we have no plans to divide the Temple Mount between religions," he told journalists. Palestinian protestors have repeatedly clashed with Israeli riot police at the Al-Aqsa compound since the middle of the month, as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coincided with Jewish Passover. Those clashes have come against a backdrop of wider violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories that since late March has killed 38 people.