Five women have been arrested after they began praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, AP reported.
The women were performing religious rituals that Ultra Orthodox Heredi Jews believe should only be carried out by men.
A police spokesperson told AP that 120 women were at the Western Wall for their monthly prayer service on Thursday morning and five women wearing prayer shawls were detained.
The move comes after the Women of the Wall group called for equal rights for women at the holy site, including the ability to wear prayer shawls, pray and read from the Torah.
The Western Wall's Orthodox rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz has endorse the idea of a liberalized mixed gender prayer section at the site.
"I want everyone to pray according to Orthodox Jewish religious law, but I don't interfere," he told Israel's Army Radio.
"If these things can be done at the Western Wall without hurting others, and this can bring about compromise and serenity, I don't object."
