JERUSALEM: Israeli police say they have closed access to a contentious Jerusalem holy site following clashes there with Palestinians rioters.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Tuesday that following continued Palestinian attacks on police forces, the site would remain closed to visitors until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Muslims refer to the site as the Noble Sanctuary, where they believe the Prophet Muhammad embarked on a night journey to heaven. Jews refer to the site, where the two Jewish temples stood in biblical times, as the Temple Mount.

Rosenfeld says masked Palestinians threw stones at Jewish worshippers in the nearby plaza, lightly wounding a 73-year-old woman. He says police forces arrested 16 suspects in the disturbances.

Violence had erupted at the site in mid-September before spreading elsewhere.