Jerusalem ( CNN ) -- Israel partially reopened access to the Temple Mount for Muslim prayers Friday , a day after taking a rare step of closing it amid Israeli-Palestinian tensions following the shooting of a controversial rabbi and subsequent killing of a suspect . Midday access to the site , which includes the al-Aqsa Mosque , was granted only to men ages 50 and above , as well as to women -- restrictions that Israeli police said were meant to prevent demonstrations by young Muslim men . About 4,000 people attended midday prayers at the mosque , police said , down from thousands more that are normally seen around noon on the Muslim holy day of Friday . Police presence also was beefed up , with about 3,000 officers in and around the Old City and East Jerusalem . Thursday 's closure of the Temple Mount -- the first in more than a decade -- infuriated Palestinians , with a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas calling it a `` declaration of war . '' The scene Friday at the mosque was largely peaceful , with people praying quietly , police said . The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest site in Islam . Jews call it the Temple Mount , and Muslims know it as Haram al-Sharif ( the Noble Sanctuary ) . Closure came after Wednesday shootings . Israeli police said they closed the Temple Mount on Thursday `` to prevent disturbances '' after the drive-by shooting of controversial activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick on Wednesday night . Israeli police shot and killed a suspect in Glick 's shooting Wednesday night . An Israeli counterterror unit surrounded the house of the unnamed suspect in the shooting , police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said on Twitter . He said the man opened fire on police , who shot and killed him . Glick is an advocate of Jewish access to Jerusalem 's fiercely contested holy sites . After he gave a presentation in Jerusalem on Wednesday night , a man on a motorcycle shot him . Rosenfeld described the attack on Glick as an `` attempted assassination . '' The rabbi was undergoing an abdominal operation for intestinal issues Friday afternoon and was in serious but stable condition , said Dr. Ofer Merkin , head of the trauma unit at Shaare Zedek hospital . Ofir Gendelman , the Israeli Prime Minister 's spokesman for Arab media , tweeted that Thursday 's Temple Mount closure was `` temporary & meant to prevent riots & escalation as well as to to restore calm and status quo to the Holy Places . '' The closure did n't sit well with Palestinians . Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told CNN that the decision to close off the site was a `` brazen challenge '' and `` grave behavior '' that would lead to `` further tensions and instability . '' Earlier , Rudeineh told the WAFA news agency , the official Palestinian news service , that Israel 's act was a `` declaration of war on the Palestinian people , Palestinian religious sites and a declaration of war on both the Arab and Islamic states . '' Contested site . The site , with its golden dome overlooking Jerusalem , is said to have hosted sacred events in both the Jewish and Muslim religions . Rabbinic sages say that God gathered dust from the spot to create Adam , the first man , before setting him loose in the Garden of Eden . Jewish tradition holds that the Temple Mount also contains Mount Moriah , where Abraham , the Hebrew patriarch , is said to have nearly sacrificed his son -- under God 's orders -- before an angel intervened . Later , Israeli King Solomon constructed the first Jewish temple on the mount , including the Holy of Holies , a room that kept the Ark of the Covenant , which was said to contain the tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments . Muslims believe that the Prophet Mohammed was carried on a flying steed from Mecca to the Jerusalem site during his miraculous Night Journey , said Muqtedar Khan , an expert on Islam and politics at the University of Delaware . `` It 's all about al-Aqsa , '' said Khan . `` That 's why all Muslims are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause . '' According to Islamic tradition , the Night Journey took Mohammed to the same Jerusalem rock on which Abraham nearly sacrificed his son , where the Muslim founder led Abraham , Moses and Jesus in prayers as the last of God 's prophets . That rock is now said to sit in the Dome of the Rock , whose golden roof gleams above the Old City skyline . Since its construction in the seventh century , the Haram al-Sharif , now controlled by an Islamic trust , has been an almost constant source of tension between Muslims and Jews . In the 1980s , Jewish radicals plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa , believing that it would lead to a spiritual revolution and usher in the Messiah . In 2000 , the Second Intifada -- a 5-year-long Palestinian uprising -- was sparked , Palestinians say , after Ariel Sharon , then a candidate for Israeli prime minister , visited the compound surrounding al-Aqsa . Sharon insisted that his visit was not intended to provoke Palestinians , but many saw it as an attempt to underline Israel 's claim to Jerusalem 's holy sites . CNN 's Michael Schwartz reported from Jerusalem . CNN 's Jason Hanna and Holly Yan reported and wrote in Atlanta . CNN 's Daniel Burke and Kareem Khadder contributed to this report .
At midday Friday , the site was open only to men ages 50 and older and to women . Israel closed the Temple Mount , which includes al-Aqsa Mosque , on Thursday after two shootings . Rabbi Yehuda Glick was shot and hospitalized in serious condition . Police say they shot and killed a suspect in the shooting after he fired at them .