AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Thousands of Al-Quds residents (Jerusalemites) performed Friday prayer at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first time after a month of its closure and the restrictions on non-residents of the Old City from praying there under the pretext of the lockdown imposed due to the Jewish holidays and the corona pandemic.
Media sources estimated the number of worshipers at between 20 to 25 thousand worshipers. The Israeli police set up dozens of roadblocks, conducted extensive inspections and checks on citizens ID’s cards, and prevented some of them from accessing the holy Islamic site.
During the Friday Khutba (sermon), Sheikh Yusef Abu Sneina underlined the necessity of unity and solidarity to ward off conflicts that plague the Muslim nation.
The preacher of Al-Aqsa stressed that the city of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are in dire conditions due to the occupation’s policies that use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse.
For his part, Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri, a preacher at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and the head of the Supreme Islamic Commission in Al-Quds (Jerusalem), called on Jerusalemites, Palestinians in the 1948 occupied land and all those who can reach the Al-Aqsa Mosque to assemble in it on Friday and every day of the week.
He stressed that it is not permissible to abandon the Mosque and that the inhabitants of the Old City in particular should be always on guard and defend it.
Sheikh Ikrimah said that the Israeli occupation authority has prevented Al-Quds residents (Jerusalemites) and others from accessing the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the past four weeks under the pretext of the Jewish holidays.
Sabri asserted that frequenting Al-Aqsa Mosque and stationing there is the first step to respond to the settlers' violations and attacks against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and their frequent daily incursions.
Al-Quds activists and institutions have called for massive participation in the Friday prayer in the Al-Aqsa Mosque after the end of the comprehensive closure of Al-Quds, which lasted a whole month.
Several activists published calls for the protection of Al-Aqsa and to respond to the violations of the Israeli occupation and Jewish settlers against the Mosque.
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24 October 2020 - 05:03
News ID: 1080504
25 thousand worshipers in Al-Aqsa on first Friday after lockdown. Thousands of Al-Quds residents (Jerusalemites) performed Friday prayer at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first time after a month of its closure and the restrictions on non-residents of the Old City from praying there under the pretext of the lockdown imposed due to the Jewish holidays and the corona pandemic.
