Around 1200 worshipers performed Friday prayer at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque while the Israeli police continued to prevent Palestinian citizens other than residents of the Old City from praying there under the pretext of the complete closure imposed due to the Jewish holidays and the measures of the corona pandemic.
For the third Friday in a row the Israeli police forces closed the roads leading to the Old City and the Damascus Gate and prevented worshipers from other areas from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Israeli police forces also set up dozens of roadblocks conducted extensive searches and checks on Palestinians’ ID cards and prevented them from reaching the holy Islamic site.
These Israeli violations forced citizens to perform Friday prayer far from the Al-Aqsa Mosque while the Israeli police issued dozens of fines against Jerusalemites in the Al-Misrara neighborhood for their insistence on holding prayers near the Damascus Gate.
Friday sermon
During the Friday Khutba (sermon) Sheikh Muhammad Salim called for the need for unity and solidarity to avoid sedition.
The preacher of Al-Aqsa stressed the importance of stationing at the Al-Aqsa Mosque to defend it against the ongoing occupation plans.
The Israeli occupation targets Jerusalemites with arrests deportation orders and fines with the aim of dissuading them from frequenting the Al-Aqsa Mosque and leaving it an easy prey for Israeli settlers.
The racist Israeli policies against Palestinian Jerusalemites and worshipers are part of the plans to change the facts on the ground inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque and divide it.
Jerusalemites are sparing no effort to stand in the way of the Israeli occupation’s conspiracies despite all the arrests and harassment they are exposed to deportation from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem travel bans and repeated raids of their homes.
Occupied Jerusalem recently witnessed an escalation in Israeli settler groups’ incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The number of settlers entering the Mosque during the past month reached 1580 settlers.
The so-called Temple Groups issued calls urging all Israeli extremists to storm Al-Aqsa by all possible means during the Jewish holidays.
