IN PICTURES| 60,000 Palestinians attend Friday prayers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque

Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- About 60,000 Palestinian worshipers performed Friday prayers today at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem’s Islamic Waqf confirmed that around 60,000 worshipers performed the Friday prayers at the mosque today, despite the massive deployment of Israeli occupation forces in the streets of the Old City and at the holy sites’ gates and in its vicinity.

The Waqf said Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, 1948-occupied Palestine, and occupied Jerusalem succeeded in reaching the holy site and attending the Friday sermon and prayers.

Every Friday, thousands of Palestinians stream to the Al-Aqsa mosque, the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. At dawn, they recite the Holy Quran before performing the Al-Fajr prayer and, hours later, the Friday prayers.

There have been calls by Palestinian officials to Muslim worshipers to pray and stay at the Al-Aqsa mosque at all times those days amid aggressive Israeli violations committed against the mosque with the coming of the so-called Jewish holidays.

Marking the so-called Jewish New Year, which started on September 26 and ended on September 27, hundreds of colonial Israeli settlers, backed by well-armed Israeli soldiers, broke into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, performed Talmudic rituals and listened to Talmudic explanations, provoking Palestinian worshipers. Strict restrictions were imposed by the occupation forces to facilitate the settlers’ incursion while barring Palestinian entry to the site.

On October 5, at approximately 7 am local time, well-armed Israeli occupation soldiers raided the mosque to make way for settlers to break into the holy site to mark the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

That day, Waqf confirmed that hundreds of Israeli settlers broke into the mosque in groups, each group consisting of 40 settlers, under the protection of the forces who attacked the worshipers inside the mosque, raided the prayer halls, blockaded worshipers inside the al-Qibli Mosque and arrested some worshipers to empty the courtyards of its worshipers to secure the settlers’ entry.

Israeli occupation authorities allow settler incursions to the mosque since 2003 under the forces protection, despite repeated objections and warnings by the Palestinian religious authorities as the visits provoke worshipers of the mosque. While the forces facilitate the settlers’ illegal incursions to the holy site, they attack, arrest, harass and obstruct movement of Palestinian worshipers in their way to the mosque and at the mosque.

In 2021, 34,562 Israeli settlers broke into the holy site, setting a new record, as in 2020, 19,000 settlers broke into the mosque and 29,700 settlers in 2019, according to Al-Qastal, a Palestinian network hub for Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem.

Jews refer to the area as the Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times. The complex also includes the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the most sacred Christian sites in the world.