Israeli authorities have released the Turkish woman they arrested earlier on Tuesday, Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry announced.
A 24-year-old woman Turkish woman named Özgecan Mutlu was detained by Israeli police inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.
Mutlu was reciting from the Quran, Islam's holy book, when an Israeli police officer seized her bag to move her away from the Bab al-Rahma Gate, east of the mosque, according to an Anadolu Agency (AA) reporter.
Mutlu was then taken into custody when she tried to chase the police officer to get her bag back, the reporter said.
She was handed a weeklong ban from entering the holy site. The Turkish Consulate in Jerusalem assured Mutlu was delivered to the mission safely.
Israeli Embassy in Ankara said in a statement that the woman was “briefly detained” for obstructing a police officer on duty.
“The tourist has been released and continues her holiday in Israel,” it said.
On Monday, Israeli police stormed the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall inside the mosque complex and prevented worshippers from performing prayers. The raid came after police officers prevented renovation work at the site on Saturday.
Tension has been running high across East Jerusalem since earlier this month when Israeli police forcibly removed Muslim worshippers from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third-holiest site. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two ancient Jewish temples.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.
