Thousands of Palestinians were able to conduct Friday prayers for the first time in months in the Al-Aqsa mosque after Israel lifted age restrictions that have kept most worshipers out for months and aggravated tensions across Jerusalem.
The courtyards of the Al-Aqsa mosque were filled with men, women, teenagers, and children as hundreds of families arrived at the mosque for prayer, celebrating their right to worship at the compound after months of frequent restrictions against all but the elderly.
The general director of the Jerusalem endowment, Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, said that the number of worshipers reached between 35-40,000, despite the fact that Israeli security guards staffing the entrances still held the ID cards of hundreds who entered.
Locals told Ma'an that many worshipers received parking ticket fines of 100-250 shekels ($26-66) as they left the courtyard after prayers.
Despite the continued armed Israeli presence at the site, the third-holiest in Islam, a festive atmosphere prevailed.
Amir, 18, from the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem that has been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces and settlers, said it was the first time since July that he had been allowed in.
"It's been four months that I haven't been able to pray at Al-Aqsa on Friday, even during the holy month of Ramadan," he told AFP.
The easing on restrictions came after US Secretary of State John Kerry announced an agreement with Israeli and Palestinian authorities on steps to reduce tensions at the flashpoint compound.
The site, which is holy to Jews as well as Muslims, has been the focus of months of unrest in occupied East Jerusalem, that has spread to the West Bank and Palestinian communities across Israel.
The Palestinians have been infuriated by a far-right Jewish campaign to potentially divide Al-Aqsa that threatens an ultra-sensitive, decades-old status quo.
The violence prompted Kerry to hold a flurry of meetings with the two sides in neighboring Jordan on Thursday, after which he announced unspecified confidence-building measures to ease the underlying tensions.
Men of all ages were allowed entry for the main weekly Muslim prayers at Al-Aqsa for the first time in "months," Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told AFP.
Police said that 40,000 worshipers attended the prayers, which passed off without incident.
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