OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Tens of thousands of Palestinians performed Friday prayer at Aqsa Mosque on Friday despite restrictions imposed by Israeli police forces on Palestinians seeking to reach Occupied Jerusalem.
The Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem said tens of thousands of worshipers were able to perform prayer at Aqsa amid heightened Israeli military measures around the city and the Old City.
Israeli forces imposed restrictions on worshipers seeking to reach the Mosque and deployed checkpoints and metal barriers around Jerusalem, the Old City and Aqsa Mosque.
The measures prevented a number of young Palestinian men from reaching Aqsa after Israeli forces stopped them at checkpoints around the city and the Old City and barred them from continuing to the Mosque.
Despite the restrictions, Palestinians from across Occupied Jerusalem made their way to Aqsa, where tens of thousands gathered for Friday prayer.
Researcher warns of escalation during Sukkot
Jerusalem affairs researcher Ziad Ibhais warned that Aqsa Mosque faces a new period of escalation with the start of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which begins Saturday, September 26, and continues through Friday, October 2.
Ibhais said the holiday has increasingly become a major period for intensified incursions into Aqsa and attempts to perform Jewish religious rituals inside the Mosque compound.
He explained that Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is one of the three pilgrimage festivals in the Torah. According to Ibhais, groups advocating the construction of a Jewish temple at the site use the holiday to increase the number of Israelis entering the compound and push for the performance of religious rituals there.
Ibhais said these groups use religious symbols associated with Sukkot in three main ways: intensifying incursions into Aqsa, attempting to introduce what they describe as plant offerings and related rituals inside the compound, and establishing a sukkah near the Magharibeh Gate to serve Israelis entering the site.
According to figures compiled by Ibhais, Sukkot has recorded some of the highest numbers of Jewish settlers entering Aqsa in recent years. Around 5,980 settlers entered the Mosque compound over five days of the holiday in 2024, averaging 1,196 per day.
In 2025, the figure rose to 7,119 over five days, an average of 1,424 per day and a 19% increase from the previous year.
Ibhais argued that temple groups are using Sukkot not merely as a religious occasion but as a means of establishing new realities at Aqsa, gradually moving from entering the compound to performing religious rituals and seeking to establish a permanent Jewish religious presence within and around it.
He warned that the coming days could see an increase in the number of settlers entering Aqsa and further attempts to introduce religious objects and rituals into the compound, particularly as Sukkot falls within a broader period of Jewish holidays.
Ibhais concluded by calling for a stronger Palestinian presence at Aqsa and urged Palestinians to travel to the Mosque and maintain a continuous presence there, saying that such mobilization has previously helped confront attempts to impose new realities at the site.
