Wednesday, October 15, next to an American diplomatic convoy carrying Counter Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other monitors Israel Radio reported.
The latest attack came shortly after Israeli police escorted one of the top leaders of the Jerusalem-headquarters international Christian Zionist movement off the Temple Mount Tuesday, October 14, because they had been silently praying in the area for Israel and peace, a Christian news agency said.
The blast reportedly occurred near the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun, south of the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Reports quoted witnesses as saying that one car, a Silver Jeep Cherokee, used by American diplomats, was completely destroyed.
U.S. ENVOY
The news service of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) said the U.S. Embassy quickly refuted initial reports that President George W. Bush’s Middle East envoy John Wolf was caught up in the blast.
Wolf is responsible for monitoring compliance with the stalled Road Map to Peace plan, the ICEJ News Service said.
U.S. diplomats and CIA representatives are part of a team that is monitoring and supervising the implementation of the U.S. backed international peace plan, VOA reported.
CHRISTIANS EXPELLED
Earlier, Christians had tried to pray for peace in Israel on the Temple Mount, hill, which the Bible describes as the place of Messiah’s future throne, the Jerusalem NewsWire (JNW) reported Wednesday, October 15.
But Jan Willem van der Hoeven, founder of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and currently director of the International Christian Zionist Center, said he had been walking alone and "speaking to the Lord in his heart," when a policeman demanded to know whether he was praying.
"I could have lied and said no," Van der Hoeven was quoted as saying, "but of course I did not want to and so said yes." JNW quoted several eye-witnesses as saying that three policemen escorted Van der Hoeven to the police station at the nearby Western Wall Plaza.
FEAST OF TABERNACLES
The incident took place after Van der Hoeven led a group of about 40 visiting Christian Zionists onto the Temple Mount, a highlight of their weeklong celebration of the biblical Feast of Tabernacles.
Van der Hoeven told JNW that when he arrived at the police station the officer in charge asked what he had been praying. He replied that he had been praying for the Messiah to come and bring peace to Israel and to the world.
"The police noted my prayer down in their official report," Van der Hoeven said.
PREACHING INCITEMENT
While Christians and Jews are forbidden from praying on the hill the Bible designates as a site holy to the God of Israel, Muslims are free to worship and preach incitement against Israel from the four mosques straddling the Mount, JNW reported.
The Palestinian Authority-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, whose offices are situated inside the compound, has reportedly issued rulings upholding the long-standing practice banning the worship of any god other than Allah, the ancient Arabian moon god.
"It is forbidden for Muslims to permit non-Muslims to supervise, conduct services or pray in any part of the mosques or underneath them," he has reportedly said.
Earlier this year, the official PA Radio broadcast live sermons from the Al Aqsa Mosque in which Sabri denounced the "criminal United States" and "rancorous Britain," JNW reported.
