IT HAD all the makings of a disaster, but the Palestinian protest prayer session atop Temple Mount in Jerusalem yesterday passed off without serious incident, leaving the Israeli security forces heaving profound sighs of relief.
More than 2,000 security personnel were deployed to supervise the noon prayers at al-Aqsa mosque - prayers which the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, had urged as many of his people as possible to attend to register their dismay at the lack of progress in peace efforts since Mr Benjamin Netanyahu won the Israeli elections in May.
Added to the palpable sense of Palestinian frustration at the deadlock was the news that Sheikh Ahmad Yassin (60), the spiritual leader of the Hamas Islamic movement, was taken to hospital briefly yesterday.
The wheelchair-bound sheikh, who has served seven years of a life sentence for alleged involvement in organising attacks on Israelis, is seriously ill and there has been much fevered debate in Israeli security circles recently over whether he should be freed on health grounds - since his death in jail would be likely to spark furious protests among his loyalists in Gaza and the West Bank.
Still more worrying yesterday was the memory of the Temple Mount massacre six years ago, when a complacent Israeli police force lost control of a huge Palestinian protest and opened fire with live bullets as Palestinians hurled rocks down on worshippers.
Anticipating that up to 100,000 Palestinians might converge on Temple Mount yesterday, Israeli forces manned roadblocks at all entrance points to Jerusalem and turned back many Palestinians without entry permits.
But the pressure at the roadblocks was not heavy. And only about 15,000 Palestinians actually gathered on the mount to pray and to listen to a sermon which castigated Israel for freezing the peace process, seizing West Bank land for settlements and new roads, and demolishing Palestinian buildings.
Galvanised by Mr Arafat's resort to protest measures, such as yesterday's prayer call and Thursday's general strike, Mr Netanyahu's cabinet yesterday approved a small ministerial steering committee for peace talks and promised substantive negotiations very soon.
But Palestinian officials remain deeply pessimistic. A Thursday night meeting between two of Mr Netanyahu's aides and Mr Arafat's deputy, Mahmoud Abbas, was utterly unproductive, according to Palestinian sources.