Tens of Thousands Attend Friday Prayer at Al-Aqsa Amid Israeli Restrictions

Gaza, MINA – Tens of thousands of Palestinians performed Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem despite tightened restrictions imposed by Israeli police on worshipers seeking to enter the holy site.

The Islamic Waqf Department in occupied Jerusalem confirmed that tens of thousands of worshipers attended prayers at the mosque compound.

Palestinian media reported that worshipers began arriving early Friday morning as Israeli forces tightened security around the compound, deploying large numbers of officers at its gates and throughout Jerusalem’s Old City.

Israeli police also established checkpoints across the city, inside the Old City, and around Al-Aqsa Mosque. Officers stopped dozens of young Palestinians to check their identification documents, preventing many from entering the mosque.

On Thursday, Jerusalem-based organizations renewed calls for Palestinians to gather in large numbers at Al-Aqsa for Friday prayers, urging worshipers to help protect the holy site through prayer and peaceful gatherings.

The groups called on residents of occupied Jerusalem, Palestinians living inside Israel, and those able to travel from the occupied West Bank to maintain a strong presence in the mosque’s courtyards.

They said the mobilization aimed to counter measures they believe threaten the Islamic identity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and seek to change its longstanding status quo.

The organizations also warned about increasing incursions into the compound, attacks on worshipers and Palestinians maintaining a presence at the site, and efforts to impose what they described as a temporal and spatial division of the holy complex.

They stressed that a continuous Palestinian presence at Al-Aqsa was essential to protecting the site amid actions by Israeli authorities and groups advocating expanded Jewish access and religious activities at the compound.

The calls for mobilization came as Israeli forces continued imposing restrictions at the mosque’s gates and entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City, limiting Palestinian worshipers’ access.

Israeli authorities have also issued orders barring some Palestinians from entering Al-Aqsa for specified periods, according to Palestinian reports.

Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, is one of Islam’s holiest sites and the third holiest after Mecca and Medina. The compound is also known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

Under the longstanding status quo arrangement, Muslims pray at the compound, while non-Muslims are permitted to visit under established rules. In recent years, however, increased visits by Israeli settlers and far-right activists, including reports of religious rituals, have fueled Palestinian concerns about changes to the arrangement.

Israeli authorities continue to impose restrictions on Palestinian access to the mosque, including security checks, the checking or temporary retention of identification documents, and entry bans against some worshipers.

Settler incursions into the compound have also continued on most days, except Fridays and Saturdays, according to Palestinian reports. Some settler organizations have called for expanded Israeli control over the site.

These developments have intensified Palestinian concerns about attempts to change the historical and legal status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque and the restrictions imposed on Muslim worshipers seeking to access the holy site.[]

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)