OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The preacher of Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, has called for intensifying Palestinian presence at the Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.
“Increasing presence at the Aqsa Mosque is a religious duty,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
Sheikh Sabri called on all Muslims all over the world to mobilize all efforts this month by traveling to the Aqsa Mosque.
Palestinian initiatives have been launched to intensify Palestinian presence at the Aqsa Mosque and to defend its courtyards, in defiance of the Israeli Judaization policies.
Meanwhile, thousands of Muslim worshipers performed the Isha and Tarawih prayers at the Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem on the sixth night of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem estimated that 85,000 Palestinian citizens were able to reach the Aqsa Mosque despite the Israeli restrictions imposed on their entry to the Old City of Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque.
Each year during Ramadan, Israel enforces measures that limit Palestinians’ ability to reach the Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
Palestinians view these restrictions as part of a broader Israeli policy to Judaize Occupied Jerusalem, including the Aqsa Mosque, and erase its Arab and Islamic identity.
Last year, the International Court of Justice declared that Israel’s long-standing occupation of Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, is illegal.
