“We condemn the intended police action, by raising the Israeli flag on the shoulder of one of its officers inside the Al-Aqsa mosque," Jerusalem's Jordanian-run Authority for Muslim Endowments and Al-Aqsa Affairs said in a statement. 

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times. 

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it – in addition to West Jerusalem – as the unified capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.