Al Aqsa Mosque reopens after 40-day closure imposed by Israel

Thousands of worshippers flocked to Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for morning prayers on Thursday after a 40-day closure imposed by Israel. Israel closed off Al Aqsa complex on February 28, the day it began bombing Iran alongside the US, citing security concerns. Israeli police said hundreds of officers and security personnel were being deployed […]

Thousands of worshippers flocked to Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for morning prayers on Thursday after a 40-day closure imposed by Israel.

Israel closed off Al Aqsa complex on February 28, the day it began bombing Iran alongside the US, citing security concerns.

Israeli police said hundreds of officers and security personnel were being deployed to Jerusalem’s Old City and on roads leading to the mosque compound on Thursday.

The officers were checking IDs, preventing some men from accessing the mosque, “assaulting some worshippers at the gates and attempting to remove them from the mosque’s courtyards”, Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported.

The Jerusalem Governorate said Israeli forces denied entry to Munta Amara, an activist who regularly prays at the mosque. Israel also detained another man in Al Aqsa’s courtyard, it said.

Despite these measures, at least 3,000 people performed the fajr, or dawn, prayer at the site, Wafa reported.

Sheikh Omar Al Kiswani, the mosque’s director, said Al Aqsa was “longing” for visitors and called for the site to remain “full of worshippers and prayers at all times”.

“They prevented us from entry for 40 days, and this had a toll on us, so much,” Palestinian worshipper Ibrahim Abu Rmaileh said. “The mosque is the site of the Prophet’s [Mohammed] ascension, which they prevented us from entering.”

Israel routinely closes off access to Al Aqsa Mosque in what is viewed as a punitive measure against Palestinians, who were forced to worship in smaller mosques across the city.

Authorities also prevented Eid al-Fitr prayers from being held at Al-Aqsa this year, marking the first such restriction since Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.  

Israeli authorities had also closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of Christianity’s holiest sites in Jerusalem, during the same period. (The National)