'Religious war' warning in holy site row

An Israeli Islamic leader warned of “religious war” and Iran’s supreme leader urged retaliation against Israel today over new excavations and repairs in Jerusalem’s Old City, outside the Holy Land’s most explosive religious site.

Raed Salah, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and several of his followers scuffled with police guarding labourers carrying out preliminary work on a new ramp up to the hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, home of the Al Aqsa mosque complex.