JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will limit Muslim worshipers’ access to Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque during the upcoming Ramadan for security reasons, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday.
The Hamas militant group, which is fighting Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, denounced the proposed restrictions and called on Palestinians to mobilize.
The Al Aqsa Mosque, one of the Muslim holy sites, sits atop a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, in a place also considered sacred by Jews.
The rules for access to the site have been a frequent source of tension, particularly during religious holidays, notably the month of Ramadan which will begin this year around March 10.
Read also…
“The prime minister made a balanced decision to allow freedom of worship within the framework of security needs determined by professionals,” Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, when asked about the possibility of blocking Israeli Muslims’ access to the mosque.
Hamas called the proposed restrictions a “continuation of Zionist criminality and religious war waged by the extremist settler group of the terrorist occupation government against our Palestinian people.”
The group called on Palestinians in Israel, Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank to “reject this criminal decision, resist the arrogance and insolence of the occupation, and mobilize to stand firm in the mosque Al Aqsa.
(Report by Ari Rabinovitch; French version Lina Golovnya, edited by Blandine Hénault)
©2024 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.