More than 100,000 Muslim worshipers performed Friday prayers at the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem after it reopened the previous day following a truce agreed between the United States and Iran.
Jerusalem’s Old City is home to major holy sites for all three Abrahamic religions, which had been shuttered since the start of the war sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.
Within the Old City lie the Al‑Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, the Western Wall for Jews and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians.
The sites reopened to worshipers on Thursday, a day after Washington and Tehran declared a two-week ceasefire in the Middle East war.
Earlier today, more than 100,000 Muslims performed the weekly Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa, according to the Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian body that administers the site.
“Hopefully they will not close Al-Aqsa again, and everyone will be able to come to this holy place — whether residents of Jerusalem or from the West Bank,” says 30-year-old Mohammad Saaedeh.
“Friday prayer is an obligation for us, but performing it at Al-Aqsa is something entirely different,” says Sharif Mohammad, 39, referring to the site’s status as Islam’s third-holiest shrine.
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