Quake opens up hole on the Temple Mount

Haaretz [has] (sorry had) this picture up, taken by a member of the Islamic Movement:-


let's try that source again.

and it writes there that:

The National Infrastructures Ministry said in a statement following Friday's 5.3-magnitude earthquake that the most recent tremors have increased fears about the possibility of a destructive earthquake taking place here.

Friday's earthquake shook open a large hole on the Temple Mount plaza, near the Dome of the Rock.

Al-Aqsa mosque officials belonging to the Islamic Movement's Northern Branch covered the hole with wooden planks following afternoon prayers. The officials, who also said the quake caused cracks in several local residential buildings, said the hole was a meter deep, two meters long and meter and a half wide.

The Islamic Movement blamed Israel for the hole, saying Israel is digging tunnels in the area that undermine the stability in the area of the Al-Aqsa mosque. The organization urged Islamic states to take action to stop Israeli excavations in the area.

I don't think any Israeli should take credit for this, well, not yet anyway.

UPDATE

Picture from today's Ma'ariv:-



another via the El Aqsa Society




And here's a scene from 1927 in Jerusalem:-



And for the academic, here.

Read my prescient monograph on the Temple Mount as a flashpoint.