OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The official Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) reported on Sunday evening that Israel intends to prevent Palestinian prisoners released under the current agreement with Hamas from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan.
Hamas and Israel are conducting a prisoner exchange in stages, as part of a ceasefire agreement that took effect on January 19, facilitated by Qatar and Egypt with U.S. support.
The Authority said, “The Israeli police will not allow anyone released in recent weeks under the agreement with Hamas to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan.”
It added, “Police data indicate that all the militants released have been barred from the Al-Aqsa compound by court orders,” according to its description.
The IBA further mentioned that the police have placed their forces on high alert in preparation for Ramadan, planning to deploy 3,000 officers daily at checkpoints leading to Jerusalem, reaching the Al-Aqsa compound.
It continued, “The police recommended to the political level (the government), as last year, to grant entry permits to Al-Aqsa for ten thousand residents of the Palestinian territories (referring to the occupied West Bank).”
According to the police recommendation, entry permits will be granted to men aged 55 and older, and women aged 50 and older.
“The police also recommended allowing children up to the age of 12 to enter the Al-Aqsa compound accompanied by an adult,” but the government has not yet agreed to these recommendations, according to IBA.
Every year, Israel imposes measures to restrict Palestinians’ access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem during Ramadan, which begins in about a week.
Palestinians consider these restrictions part of Israel’s intensive measures to Judaize East Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to erase its Arab and Islamic identity. They hold on to East Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state, based on international legitimacy decisions, which do not recognize Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967 or its annexation in 1981.
Measures to Judaize Jerusalem, including settlement and displacement, have accelerated alongside a genocidal war launched by Israel with U.S. support on the Gaza Strip from October 7, 2023, to January 19, 2025.
This genocide has resulted in over 160,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of whom are children and women, and more than 14,000 missing, amidst massive destruction, with reconstruction costs estimated at over $53 billion.
The ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement includes three phases, each lasting 42 days, with the condition of negotiating the next phase before completing the current one.
However, Netanyahu continues to delay the start of negotiations for the second phase of the agreement, which was supposed to begin on February 3.
Hebrew media reports that Netanyahu promised the “Religious Zionism” party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, not to start the second phase of the agreement to persuade it to remain in the government coalition, thus preventing its collapse.
