Jerusalem’s Muslims despair on Eidul Fitr as access to Al-Aqsa Mosque denied amid US-Israeli war on Iran

Jerusalem without intervention”.

“However, officers were required to enforce… life-saving guidelines when crowds later exceeded authorised capacity and seemingly attempted to breach security perimeters into the Old City,” they said.

But while Israeli authorities claim the closure of Al-Aqsa is for safety reasons, there is fear among some Palestinians that it could be part of efforts to rewrite the strict rules governing access to Jerusalem’s holy sites.

“The occupier, under the pretext of security and for its own interests, has closed the mosque,” cleric Ayman Abu Najm, who had come from Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, said.

“In the history of the occupation, this is the longest period during which the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been closed.”

For some Muslims, the inability to access Al-Aqsa this year was felt as a deep personal loss.

“Ramazan without the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a very sad feeling, a feeling of having a broken heart,” said worshipper Zeyad Mona.

The Author

Niloofar Kazemi

See author's posts