Tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers attended the first Friday prayers of the holy month of Ramadan at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in the largest gathering since the coronavirus pandemic.
Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Waqf Council on Islamic Affairs, told AFP about 70,000 worshipers came from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Arab communities within Israel.
During last year’s Ramadan, under the pandemic, “they [Israeli authorities] “No one was allowed to enter Al-Aqsa except for me,” he said.
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On Friday, the police turned off the roads around Jerusalem buses full of worshipers drive. But the expansive square of the compound was far from full.
The coordinator of government activities in the territories, Israel’s military body that administers the West Bank, said 10,000 vaccinated Palestinians had been given permits to enter Jerusalem for prayers this year.
The Friday prayers were held as tensions rose in the capital. Police were heavily deployed around the Old City of Jerusalem in anticipation of possible unrest after three consecutive nights’ rioting in the area.
The month of Ramadan usually sees increasing tensions around the Old City of Jerusalem, which houses the Temple Mount, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims.
A Palestinian woman raises her arms in prayer as she participates in the first Friday prayers of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, outside the Dome of the Rock, on April 16, 2021, on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
Overnight clashes have taken place in East Jerusalem over the past three days, with tensions flaring up over the police’s decision to prevent people from sitting on the steps outside the Damascus Gate, as part of the coronavirus restrictions.
The Palestinians were also angry earlier this week after Israel allegedly disconnected the power supply to loudspeakers that made the Islamic call to prayer on Temple Mount, during an official memorial service held Tuesday night in the adjacent West Wall Square.
Palestinians clean the floor at the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, before the holy month of Ramadan, on April 10, 2021 (Jamal Awad / Flash90)
Tensions are also rising in East Jerusalem over concerns that Israel will prevent the region from participating in the national Palestinian legislative election scheduled for next month. Israel has stalled the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, viewing it as a violation of its sovereignty over its capital.
At least two police officers and five civilians were injured during clashes in East Jerusalem this week, according to police, who are looting firefighters, rocks and glass bottles at police officers and passers-by.
Israeli border police clash with Palestinians outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 15, 2021 (Jamal Awad / Flash90)
Shimon Cohen, police spokesman, said seven people were arrested overnight in Palestinian neighborhoods near the Old City. Those arrested attacked a police officer in need of medical attention for a head injury and threw stones and glass bottles.
The video circulated online showed people kicking in the windshield of a police vehicle in East Jerusalem, and officers firing stun grenades.
The Temple Mount has long been a hotbed of flares and confrontations between Palestinian and Israeli security forces have sometimes been fatal.
Israel conquered the composition and the rest of the Old City in Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, but the Waqf, funded and controlled by the Jordanian government, continued to administer the site. Israeli security forces are present on the mountain and working in cooperation with the Waqf. Jews may visit, but unlike Muslims, they are not prayed on the Temple Mount site.
