Israel says it will implement what it calls “safety restrictions” at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins over the weekend.
“The usual restrictions for public safety will be in place as they have been every year,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer says in an online briefing to journalists.
Last year, Israeli authorities only allowed men aged 55 and older and women over 50 to enter the mosque compound “for security reasons,” while thousands of Israeli police officers were deployed across Jerusalem’s Old City.
Mencer indicates that precautions will be taken again this year, amid high tensions during the shaky ceasefire in Gaza.
“What we cannot, of course, and no country would countenance, is people seeking to foment violence and attacks on anyone else,” he says, without detailing this year’s police deployment.
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