Jerusalem ? Thousands of Israeli police mobilized at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site Sunday but confronted only a handful of Jewish extremists intent on scuttling a Gaza pullout by tying up security forces. In Gaza, militants fired dozens of mortar shells after Israeli forces killed three teenagers.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking on a plane taking him to today’s meeting with President Bush, said the mortar fire “is a flagrant violation of the understandings” reached at the February truce summit with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

“And this will be a central issue to be raised in my talks with President Bush,” Sharon said.

Police arrested 31 extremist Jews who planned to demonstrate Sunday in the Old City of Jerusalem, along with a West Bank Hamas leader who spoke at the holy site. But the 10,000 demonstrators pledged by organizers never materialized. Only a few dozen showed up.

Despite the low turnout, Israeli officials acknowledged the protesters appeared to have accomplished their goal of showing how easy it will be to divert large numbers of troops from their main mission this summer — the planned Gaza pullout.

At the center of the drama is the most sensitive and hotly disputed holy site in the Holy Land — a hilltop known as the Temple Mount to Jews and Noble Sanctuary to Muslims. It is where the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, including the shrine marking the spot where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended to heaven, is built over the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples.

Clashes at the site could ignite violence across the region, explaining the presence of 3,000 riot-ready Israeli police around the walled Old City, preparing to confront a handful of demonstrators.

At the plaza in front of the Western Wall, Judaism's most holy site, Israeli police arrest an ultra-Orthodox Israeli who protested and yelled angrily Sunday against Israeli forces and authorities who were forbidding Jews to pray inside the compound of Al Aqsa Mosque, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City.

Extremist Jews who make up a new group called “Revava,” a biblical word that means 10,000, stated openly that their goal is to storm the sensitive site in July, when thousands of Israeli police and soldiers are in Gaza to evacuate 9,000 settlers — forcing Israel’s leaders to pull the forces from Gaza, send them to Jerusalem and, in that way, stop the pullout. The Sunday protest, they said, was just a test.

In anticipation of the protest, hundreds of Palestinians spent the night in the mosque compound, ready to confront Jewish demonstrators.

Outside the Old City walls, hundreds of young Palestinians scuffled with baton-wielding police, who kept them away from the shrine. Two Palestinians were hurt, with one suffering a head injury after being hit by a club.