Over 130,000 Worshipers Prayed Friday at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem
Palestinians walk at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City May 21, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
i24 News – According to estimates of the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem, at least 130,000 people performed the third Friday prayer of the holy month of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid heightened security measures.
After the end of the prayer, thousands of people organized a demonstration on the terraces of the Dome of the Rock, chanting “chants of Takbir and Al-Aqsa victory and rallying around the resistance, headed by the Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, and the Lions ‘Den groups, as well as chants of the Al-Aqsa Protection Department.”
In the Friday sermon delivered by Sheikh Yusuf Abu Asnina, he referred to the “difficult conditions that Al-Aqsa is going through and the dangers it faces,” describing what is happening as a “affliction and a test,” and said, “despite the painful events that we witnessed at Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Palestinian people have proved that they are up to the responsibility,” calling for “stopping the attacks on worshipers.”
Thousands of people had performed dawn prayer, on Friday morning, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which they attended from all cities and villages and from various Palestinian neighborhoods adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem.
Confrontations had broken out early Friday morning between the youth of the Old City of Jerusalem and groups of Jewish settlers who came to the area of Bab al-Hadid (one of the gates of Al-Aqsa), and held Talmudic rituals there under the protection of security forces, who were forced to evacuate them from the area.
Israeli Police personnel were deployed in large numbers with the aim of allowing freedom of religion and worship to the many believers who frequent the holy places, while maintaining security, as about 2,300 officers of the Jerusalem District Police and Border Guard police, as well as other reinforcements, under the command of Jerusalem District Commander Doron Turgman, worked throughout Jerusalem and especially in the Old City.
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