IDF announces terms for West Bank Palestinians’ entry to Temple Mount during Ramadan
Military liaison COGAT says visitors will allowed in for Friday prayers with a permit, limited to children under 10, men over 55, and women over 50
The Israel Defense Forces’ military liaison to the Palestinians announced Tuesday that younger children and older adults will be the only West Bank Palestinians permitted to enter Jerusalem to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount for the important first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this week.
This year’s Ramadan comes amid tinderbox tensions stemming from the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the group’s shock October 7 attack, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages.
Terror groups have called on Palestinians to come to Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has often been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence, to confront Israel over the war in Gaza.
When Ramadan began Sunday night, COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, had yet to announce restrictions on prayers at Al Aqsa.
The rules announced Monday would limit West Bank Palestinians’ access to the compound for Friday’s prayers to men over 55, women over 50, and children under 10, COGAT chief Ghassan Elian said in an Arabic-language post on Facebook.
Worshipers will need a valid permit from COGAT, subject to security approval, and there may be changes per fresh assessments of the situation and other developments.
COGAT did not say if West Bank Palestinians can visit Jerusalem between Sundays and Thursdays during Ramadan.
Unlike previous years, due to the war, Gazan Palestinians will not be permitted to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Palestinians from the West Bank have been unable to visit Jerusalem under government restrictions put in place immediately after the October 7 Hamas attack that started the ongoing war.
Last Ramadan, there was no age restriction on women from the territory entering Jerusalem.
The Temple Mount is the holiest place in Judaism, where two biblical Temples once stood, and Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third-holiest shrine in Islam, making the site a central flashpoint of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims crowd the site for prayers each Ramadan, as religious fervor is heightened. While Israel has imposed restrictions on Palestinian access during times of heightened security tensions, it has refrained from imposing those rules on the country’s Muslim minority.
Police officers scuffled with some attendees at the entrance to the flashpoint Temple Mount site on the first night of Ramadan on Sunday, but prayers on Monday passed peacefully.
Police were also accused of denying some Arab Israelis entry to the site, in violation of a promise made by Netanyahu to enable free access to Muslim citizens.
Netanyahu pledged last week that the number of worshipers allowed to pray on the Temple Mount in the first week of Ramadan would be the same as in previous years and that no restrictions would be imposed on Arab Israelis, overruling the reported wishes of ultranationalist firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the Israel Police.
