The Israeli occupation authorities have banned Friday prayers at Masjid Al Aqsa after two Israeli police officers and three Palestinians were killed in a shooting near Islam’s third-holiest site.
Israeli forces imposed widespread closures on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the wider Jerusalem area, sparking widespread condemnation from Palestinian officials who called the moves “terrorist procedures.”
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers were deployed across streets around the Old City, preventing people from entering or leaving the area, while dozens of mainly elderly Muslim worshipers were pushed away from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the Old City.
Unable to access Al-Aqsa, worshipers performed Friday prayer in the streets and alleyways leading to the compound inside the Old City.
Firas al-Dibs, Head of the Public Relations and Media department at the Islamic Endowment which administers the compound, told Ma’an News Agency that dozens of Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers raided and completely surrounded Al-Aqsa following the armed confrontations.
Al-Dibs said that Israeli forces prevented Muslims from reaching the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, while employees of the Waqf were detained for interrogation and had their ID cards confiscated.
The grand mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, told Ma’an that Israeli forces had prevented him from entering Al-Aqsa from multiple entrances on Friday. Hussein told Ma’an that it was the first time that Israel had prevented Muslims from performing Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa since 1967.
Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated on the latest news and updates from around the Muslim world!
“We insist on reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque and performing prayers there,” Hussein told Ma’an. “The occupation preventing us from praying marks an assault against our right to worship in this pure Islamic mosque.”
A witness who was at the scene told Ma’an that Israeli forces held some 60 Muslim worshipers who were in the area during the attack, interrogated them, and confiscated their ID cards and mobile phones.
The witness added that Israeli forces raided the mosque with shoes on, in violation of the Muslim tradition which mandates that shoes be taken off in places of worship, and emptied out garbage containers in the compound under the claim that they were searching the containers.
Meanwhile, Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said that police chief Roni al-Sheikh “has conducted a session to evaluate the situation” in Jerusalem given how “dangerous, extreme and exceptional the attack was.” According to al-Samri, al-Sheikh said that the attack “will have consequences on the international level.”
“Israeli police have imposed a closure on the Al-Aqsa compound and will continue banning worshipers from entering until investigations into the incident and searches in the area in accordance to security requirements are done, in order to maintain public safety and order,” al-Samri said.
Following Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has maintained a compromise with the Islamic trust that controls the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to not allow non-Muslim prayers in the area. However, non-Muslims are permitted to visit the site during designated times.
Israeli forces nonetheless regularly escort Jewish visitors to the compound, who often carry out Jewish religious rituals and prayers at the site, leading to tensions with Palestinian worshipers.
Palestinians have long feared that Israel has been attempting to shake up the status quo at the holy site, in the shape of routine Jewish incursions on the site and right-wing Israeli calls to demolish the mosque and replace it with a third Jewish temple.
