Tens of thousands of Palestinians performed Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque and the absentee funeral prayer for Gaza house fire victims.

Jerusalemite sources reported that large numbers of worshipers performed the Friday prayer in the holy site despite the Israeli restrictions imposed at the gates and entrances of the Old City.

The Israeli police forces set up dozens of roadblocks conducted extensive searches and checks on Palestinians and their ID cards and prevented many of them from reaching the holy Islamic site.

During the Friday sermon the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Muhammad Salim called for intensifying Palestinian presence at the holy site.

He also stated that the occupation is launching a large-scale attack on Jerusalem and its people real estate and sanctities stressing that all these frenzied plans and campaigns in secret and in public are invalid.

Earlier in the morning thousands performed dawn prayer at the holy site despite Israeli restrictions.

Since the early hours of dawn thousands of Palestinians gathered at the gates of the al-Aqsa Mosque on their way to attend the dawn prayer confirming the Palestinians’ spiritual links to the holy site.

Similar gatherings were also reported in several West Bank towns amid the participation of families of Palestinian martyrs and prisoners.

Thousands of Palestinian worshipers performed Friday prayer in the courtyards of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem for the first time in 42 days after it was closed by the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) for several weeks under the pretext of limiting the spread of the coronavirus.

The Islamic Endowments Department in Occupied Jerusalem stated that the number of worshipers reached about 15000 distributed throughout the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Earlier on Friday dozens of worshipers performed the dawn prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of the Great Dawn campaign.

Jerusalemite institutions and personalities called on Palestinians on Thursday to participate in the Great Dawn campaign in the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and to perform the Friday dawn prayer at Al-Aqsa.

The campaign organizers called for this campaign to be a starting point for attending all five daily prayers at the Aqsa Mosque.