Amin al-Siyam says he is awakened nearly every night by the sound of Jewish settlers tunnelling under his east Jerusalem house towards the Old City's deeply sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

"We hear them at night, under the house. Sometimes the whole building shakes. Then they leave the next morning, early," Siyam says.

Siyam lives in the heart of one of the world's most bitterly contested cities, his house sitting above a tunnel that has struck a new fault line in the Middle East conflict.

The house faces an archaeological dig in the Arab neighbourhood of Silwan in annexed east Jerusalem, just a few hundred metres from Judaism's holiest site and Islam's third holiest site — which occupy the same space.

Jews call it the Temple Mount — the site of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Muslims call it Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, from which they believe their prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven on a horse.

Angry protests and even fierce clashes have erupted whenever one group believes the other is encroaching on its sacred turf.

The most recent Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000 after right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon visited Al-Aqsa, and an Israeli project to repair a nearby ramp sparked widespread protests in February 2007.

Suspicious dig

The Silwan project has aroused similar suspicions, in part because people are not allowed to see the tunnel, but primarily because the work is being funded by the Ir David Foundation, an Israeli settler group.

The site, on a narrow, traffic-choked street running down the steep southern slope outside the Old City's walls is surrounded by a high metal fence, with a large Israeli flag fluttering over a padlocked gate.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority says it has found an ancient tunnel that once carried rainwater from the heart of the Old City to a ritual bathhouse several hundred metres away.

"It was a brand new tunnel from 2000 years ago," says IAA head Shuka Dorfman. "The condition of the tunnel was unbelievable."

Starting in 2004 archaeologists excavated most of the tunnel between the dig site and the bathhouse. But last month they started working north in the direction of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif.

Based on a late 19th century British excavation of large sections of the tunnel, archaeologists believe the tunnel leads to the Old City, veering close to the mosque complex but not passing beneath it.

Yet because the project is being carried out in secret and funded by a settler organisation, many residents think it is part of a plan to take over — or destroy — Haram al-Sharif.

"If it is an archaeological site and not a settlement, if it is a tourist site, then why can't we go and see it? Why can't anyone see it?" Ahmed Qarain (37), a local resident, asks.

The IAA has refused to allow anyone from the neighbourhood or the media to see the northern section of the tunnel, and declined several requests from AFP to comment on how much of it has been excavated.

Officials there gave no reason for the ban, other than to say the work was in progress. However, they promised that the media would be invited once the project is completed.

Residents have set up a protest tent nearby and filed a lawsuit arguing they were not consulted on a dig they say runs beneath their homes. On 17 March an Israeli court ordered a halt to the project while it considers the case.

Dorfman says the objections are purely political and have nothing to do with the antiquities authority.

"We are a non-political organisation; we are a professional organisation and an organisation that is working according to the law of antiquities," he says. "I don't care about politics."

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