OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, called on the Palestinian people to remain steadfast in Al-Aqsa Mosque at all times, urging everyone to reach the holy site during Ramadan and beyond.
Sabri said, in a press statement on Friday, “This is the third Friday of the blessed month of Ramadan, and the military and security restrictions imposed by the (Israeli) occupation are still in place and increasing.”
Sheikh Sabri pointed out that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has prevented “our people from the West Bank from reaching the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has led to a decrease in the number of worshipers in the Mosque.” The numbers should have exceeded 300,000, but now the numbers do not reach approximately one-third of that, he remarked.
The preacher of Al-Aqsa affirmed that the IOA measures violate the right of worship, calling for continuous pilgrimage to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
More than 125,000 citizens performed the Friday prayer of the third week of the blessed month of Ramadan in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem, coinciding with the continued escalation of military measures imposed on the Mosque and the holy city by the IOA.
The Israeli occupation police imposed strict restrictions on the access of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to the city of Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque for the third consecutive week.
The police forces were intensively deployed in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, set up military checkpoints, checked the identities of citizens, and prevented hundreds of them from reaching Jerusalem to perform prayers in the holy Islamic site.
Hundreds of citizens performed prayers in the streets near the occupation checkpoints after being prevented from entering Al-Aqsa for prayer. Most of them were elderly, and hundreds of Jerusalemites and residents of 1948 occupied Palestine who were expelled from Al-Aqsa performed the Friday prayer in the Old City and in the nearest accessible point.
Calls by Jerusalemite activists and youth movements continue to urge people to gather at Al-Aqsa Mosque and perform Iʿtikāf (seclusion for worship) there until the end of Ramadan, in order to prevent the occupation from taking control of Al-Aqsa and to confront the incursions of settlers, and to defend and protect the Mosque and break the siege on it.
These calls emphasized the necessity of performing all prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, emphasizing that anyone who can reach the Mosque, especially from all areas of Jerusalem, should do so.
Hamas Movement in the West Bank and Jerusalem also called for mobilization and participation in response to the call to lift the siege on Al-Aqsa, in support of Gaza and its heroic resistance, and to protect the sanctities from the violations of the occupation and its settlers, and its plans to Judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque and the city of Jerusalem.
The spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaidah, called on the Palestinian people to mobilize and march towards Al-Aqsa, to remain steadfast in it, and not to allow the occupation to impose facts on the ground.
