Ramadan prayers at al-aqsa held under tight controls and lingering grief

Yesterday 16:20

By: Dakir Madiha

Ramadan prayers at al-aqsa held under tight controls and lingering grief

Tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers gathered on Friday at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan since a fragile ceasefire took hold in Gaza, filling the hilltop esplanade under a heavy Israeli security presence. For many Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, it was the first time since last Ramadan that they were able to reach Islam’s third-holiest site in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian authority that administers the compound, estimated attendance at around 80,000 people, well below the up to 200,000 worshippers who would typically pack the sanctuary for Ramadan Fridays in calmer years.

Israeli authorities limited entry for Palestinians from the West Bank to a stated quota of 10,000 people for the day, imposing age restrictions that allowed only older men and women, along with young children accompanied by close relatives, to cross into Jerusalem with special daily permits. Those constraints translated into long lines and frustration at checkpoints such as Qalandia, the main crossing point between Ramallah and Jerusalem, where thousands of people queued from the early morning hours only to be told the quota had been reached and that no further entry would be allowed. Local officials in the Jerusalem Governorate said thousands were turned back at Qalandia and other access points, arguing that the tight controls were designed to thin out the number of worshippers at Al-Aqsa and to weaken the role of the Islamic Waqf in overseeing the site.

Inside Jerusalem, Israeli police deployed more than 3,000 officers across the city, including units stationed around the Old City and inside its surrounding neighborhoods, saying their presence was intended to respond quickly to any emergency rather than to project force. The compound itself, already a frequent flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, remained under close surveillance throughout the day as worshippers streamed in for the central noon prayer and later for evening taraweeh prayers marking the first week of the holy month. Palestinian worshippers who did make it to the mosque described a mixture of relief at being able to pray there again and anger at seeing so many others blocked at distant checkpoints.

Beyond Jerusalem’s stone walls, the spiritual rhythm of Ramadan was overshadowed by the human cost of more than two years of war in Gaza and the fragile truce that has muted but not ended the violence. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, most of them women and children, with more than 171,000 others wounded and vast swathes of homes and infrastructure reduced to rubble. The ceasefire that came into effect on October 10 has slowed but not halted bloodshed: officials in Gaza accuse Israeli forces of hundreds of violations, including shelling and gunfire that they say have killed more than 600 people and injured over 1,600 since the deal began.

In cities such as Khan Younis and across central and northern Gaza, families began the month breaking their fast amid shattered buildings, improvised shelters and intermittent power, trying to preserve rituals of shared meals and night prayers despite displacement and loss. Residents speak of a Ramadan defined less by lanterns and festive streets than by grief, with many mourning relatives and neighbors whose names are still being added to lists of the dead. Against that backdrop, the scenes at Al-Aqsa on the first Friday of Ramadan carried a symbolic weight far beyond Jerusalem, encapsulating both the enduring pull of the sacred site and the enduring constraints facing Palestinians under occupation.