After 40-Day Lockdown, Al-Aqsa Mosque Reopens to Worshippers
According to an Anadolu correspondent on the ground, the mosque, located in the Old City of al-Quds, was reopened at dawn, allowing hundreds of Palestinian Muslims to enter the Al-Haram al-Sharif compound.
As the gates were opened with the morning call to prayer, large numbers of worshippers flocked to the site, with many seen breaking into tears and performing prostrations of gratitude in the mosque’s courtyards.
Hundreds of Muslims lined up for the dawn prayer, marking the first congregational worship at the site since its closure.
The Israeli regime’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed the compound on April 6 while it remained closed.
Israel had completely shut access to Al-Aqsa Mosque on Feb. 28, coinciding with its attacks on Iran, allowing only mosque staff and officials from the al-Quds Islamic Waqf to pray on site, while other Palestinians were forced to worship in smaller mosques across the city.
Authorities also prevented Eid al-Fitr prayers from being held at Al-Aqsa this year, marking the first such restriction since Israel’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967.
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Israeli authorities had also closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of Christianity’s holiest sites in al-Quds, during the same period.
The Israeli regime had extended a state of emergency until mid-April but did not clarify whether the mosque would remain closed throughout that period.
Source: Anadolu Agency
