JERUSALEM: Only 12,000 worshippers managed to perform the weekly Friday prayers today at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem due to intensified Israeli restrictions, preventing many from reaching the holy site.
The Islamic Waqf Department, the Jordan-run authority in charge of the holy site, reported the unusually low attendance, attributing it to the prolonged siege imposed by Israeli forces on the Mosque for the sixteenth consecutive week.
Simultaneously, Israeli occupation forces set up checkpoints in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem, coinciding with the arrival of worshippers for Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The forces also launched tear gas and wastewater to disperse the worshipers on their way to the holy site and arrested at least one of them.
Several journalists covering the events experienced suffocation due to the deployment of toxic tear gas by the occupation forces.
The Israeli occupation forces have persistently imposed a blockade on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City of
Jerusalem for four consecutive months, restricting worshippers’ access to the holy site.
Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA