OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC)– Sheikh Mohamed Hussein the Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian lands has denounced the Israeli arbitrary measures against thousands of worshipers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who were blocked from reaching the Aqsa Mosque.
Sheikh Hussein revealed that the number of the congregation during this Friday prayer in the Aqsa Mosque does not equal their number in the previous months of Ramadan because the IOA closed the West Bank and barred its people from entering the holy city.
The Mufti highly praised the Palestinians who performed their Friday prayer at the barriers erected by the IOF troops in the vicinity of Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque highlighting that the Israeli unjust measures come in conjunction with allowing Israeli extremists to desecrate the Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil and the Aqsa.
For its part the Aqsa foundation for the maintenance of Islamic shrines underlined that the IOA turned occupied Jerusalem at the early hours of Friday into a military zone and blocked all roads leading to the Aqsa Mosque.
The foundation added that the Israeli measures deprived tens of thousands of Palestinian worshipers from reaching the Aqsa Mosque pointing out that despite the military barriers a lot of people of occupied Jerusalem felt more determined to reach the Aqsa Mosque.
According to the foundation the Israeli mounted police were deployed throughout Jerusalem an unmanned surveillance balloon was flown to monitor the movement of the Palestinian worshipers and all crossings between Jerusalem and the West Bank were closed where thousands of Palestinians who gathered at the barriers were barred from entering Jerusalem to perform the Friday prayer in the Aqsa Mosque.
