Citing safety precautions, Israel to bar Friday Ramadan prayers at Jerusalem holy site amid Iran war

Amid the war with Iran, Muslim worshippers will not be permitted to attend Friday Ramadan prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount tomorrow, Israeli authorities announce.

“The State of Israel is committed to freedom of worship and religion, and has allowed this during the first two weeks of the blessed month of Ramadan, but the axis of death led by Iran endangers everyone’s lives through its continued launching of rockets toward Israel and the entire region,” says Brig. Gen. Hisham Ibrahim, chief of the Civil Administration, a Defense Ministry body that’s part of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit, which regulates much of daily life in the West Bank.

“For this reason, and in accordance with the instructions of Israel’s Home Front Command, and to preserve public safety and protect people, all holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, will remain closed tomorrow, Friday, and worshippers and visitors of all religions will not be allowed to enter,” Ibrahim says in a video posted on COGAT’s Facebook page.

In the past two Fridays of Ramadan, thousands of West Bank Palestinians were permitted by Israel to enter Jerusalem for the prayers at Al-Aqsa. Israel said that it would cap the number of Palestinian worshipers from the West Bank attending the weekly prayers at 10,000.