About 130,000 Palestinian worshippers prayed at Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday during Ramadan prayers at the start of a high-tension weekend for Israeli security forces.
The Waqf Islamic Trust, which administers the site, put the number of worshippers at 250,000 throughout the day. Israel allowed women of all ages and men over the age of 55 and under the age of 12 to take part.
More than 2,000 police were deployed but the prayers passed relatively peacefully with only minor disturbances.
Israel had already announced that Jews and other non-Muslims would be prevented from visiting the flashpoint Temple Mount site, revered by Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif Noble Sanctuary – where the Al-Aqsa mosque is located – for the last 10 days of Ramadan, in an effort to diffuse tension.
Friday also marked Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, observed by Shi’ite Muslims in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israeli troops used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse dozens of Hizbullah activists who gathered close to the Lebanese-Israeli border as part of Quds Day protests.
The events on Friday followed recent tension in the region with clashes in Jerusalem and the West Bank and rocket fire aimed at Israel from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
The Israeli security forces remain on a heightened state of alert and extra troops have deployed to the West Bank and police reserves have been mobilised.
In a highly unusual move, Israel declared a six-kilometer no-fly zone along the borders with Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip over the weekend.
The websites of Israel’s banks and post office were targeted in a cyberattack on Friday, forcing some of the sites to temporarily go offline. Israel’s National Cyber Directorate reported that the attempted cyberattacks on Israeli bank websites were identified and stopped.
Tens of thousands of Iranians, some chanting “death to America” and “death to Israel”, marched in the capital Tehran on Friday to mark Jerusalem Day.
Banners raised by demonstrators read “the destruction of Israel is near” and “Palestine is the axis of unity of the Muslim world”.
Senior Iranian officials attended the rally, including president Ebrahim Raisi. Parliament speaker Mohammad Qalibaf told the demonstrators that Israel is the “root” of problems in the region and that the Palestinians are thwarting Israel’s plans.
Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned on Friday that “harming the Islamic holy sites is a red line”, threatening war “if Israel behaves stupidly”. In his speech, delivered in Beirut as part of Quds Day activities, he also claimed that Israel’s response to rocket fire from Lebanon last week was minimal, targeting several banana plantations.
On Thursday, Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, spoke at a conference in Beirut marking Jerusalem Day and said that the “rift” within Israel over the controversial plans to overhaul the judiciary is a “hint that the country is on the path of disintegration”.
