3000 Morning Pray at Al Aqsa After a 40-day Forced Closure

Israel has reopened Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque to Palestinians after a 40-day closure, as large crowds flocked to the holy site to pray, expressing joy following the unjustified closure.

More than 3,000 Palestinian worshippers performed the dawn (Fajr) prayer at the holy site for the first time since the start of the US-Israeli assault on Iran on 28 February.

Videos circulating on social media show the reopening of the mosque’s gates, with large crowds entering its courtyards.

Videos also showed volunteers and mosque custodians cleaning and preparing the site to receive worshipers.

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Israel has barred Muslim worshipers from accessing Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque since the start of the ongoing Israeli-US assault on Iran, marking a total closure of one of Islam’s holiest sites not seen since the start of the occupation in 1967 and raising concerns over Israeli plans to impose further restrictions and tighten control over the compound.

No exceptions have been made for Muslims, even during Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month, or the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Meanwhile, it allowed settler incursions into Islam’s third-holiest site on Sunday. Up to 50 settlers were permitted to visit the Al-Buraq Wall, which is part of the walls of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex and known to Jews as the Western Wall. The settlers attended traditional prayers as part of the Passover holiday, held in a covered space by the Western Wall plaza. 

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Israeli occupation authorities have also resumed near-daily incursions by Israeli settlers into Al-Aqsa following its reopening, while extending their duration.

Dozens raided the site from 6:30am local time, shortly after Muslim worshipers were cleared from the site following dawn prayers.

They were seen performing Tamudic rituals, praying, singing and dancing while backed by forces. 

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Before the war, such incursions took place in two shifts on weekdays: from 7am to 11am and from 1:30pm to 2:30pm. Under a new schedule approved before the war on Iran, raids now run from 6:30am to 11:30am and from 1:30pm to 3pm, totalling six and a half hours daily.

The Jerusalem Governorate described the extension as a “dangerous escalation” that further undermines the status quo.

“The extension reflects an acceleration in efforts to impose new realities at Al-Aqsa Mosque and entrench time-based division, particularly following its reopening after a 40-day closure,” it said.

Tomorrow will be the first Friday since the closure, during which the holy site was shut for five Fridays according to the Quds News Network.

  • CrossFireArabia

    CrossFireArabia

    Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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    Ahmad Al Sharif Celebrates His Wedding on a ‘Bulldozer”

    Ahmad and his bride will never forget their wedding day. It was a joyous occasion because he was married on a bulldozer amidst the ruins of his Sheikh Radwan neighborhood which is part of Gaza City.

    Social media websites covered the festive occasion at length, Friday, with him being carried in the mouth of the bulldozer as he danced next to his bride with people cheering him on as Palestinian danced the dabbakeh folklore and traditional song.

    The bride Ahmad Al Sharif travelled back with his wife Alaa, from Deir Al Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip. The newly-weds were part of a group wedding of a massive 300 people that was held in that city’s “Dier Al Balah Services Club” and organized by the UAE-based Al Khalifah Humanitarian Corp.

    Such happiness can only be displayed in Gaza where the Strip is “starving but happy” according to its people. “I was particularly keen to have part of my wedding on a bulldozer to show the ruins and debris my neighborhood and city has been reduced to by the Israelis,” Al Sharif said.

    For him Friday, will be remembered as an ecstatic occasion. The collective wedding began in Deir Al Balah at 1 pm on Friday noon where brides and grooms from all over the Gaza Strip got “hitched” in plush rented out white dresses and black suits and watched by thousands of people.

    About 120 couples came from the Radwan, Shujayia, and Rimal areas of Gaza City and the north of the Strip while the rest from central Gaza, Khan Younis and Rafah, the last city being on the southern border with the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt.

    Some of the couples also came from their new homes in tent cities hoisted in the months after the Israeli genocide soon after 7 October, 2023 when thousands of people were displaced and chased away through Israeli guns.

    The big wedding ceremony lasted till mid-afternoon Asr prayer and all the couples started to move out and go back to where they came from.  

    “We wanted to get back to our homes before dark,” Al Sharif. “I actually wanted to get back to my neighborhood before sunset to have another party, and boy, what a send that turned out to be.” This was true because of the videos that splashed the Internet.

    He surprised everyone by having the party on a bulldozer with his bride sitting next to him; it is him and his bride Alaa that made the news headlines on social media websites as the other couples took their new brides back home without much pomp nor ceremony considering the circumstances.

     “I wanted to have a party among the rubbles as a point of defiance and show the Israeli army that they can’t beat our spirit,” he added. “We had a good show, judging from the number of people who came to greet us and join in the festivities,” he added.

    Most of the people of Gaza has been reduced to living among the wreckage, debris and in tents. The UN estimates that between 57.5 to 68 million tons of debris clutter the Strip today; and these piles were created by the 100,000 tons of explosives thrown on the enclave by Israel since 7 October, 2023.

    The total number of people that have been killed in Gaza stands at 72,600 while over 172,000 have been injured as shown by the Gaza Health Ministry.

    Not many married during the genocide of the last two years or so. Young people have been delaying till things become relatively quite, war-wise. Ever since 11 October, 2025, a ceasefire took place in Gaza as backed by US President Donald Trump.

    Although the killings and injury continue through the Israeli military, by comparison, they are much lower than when the war on Gaza had been at its highest, and which explains why more and more people are getting married in the enclave.

     Marwan Asmar is a writer from Amman and is Chief Editor  of crossfirearabia.com

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    550,000 Palestinian Workers Unemployed

    The General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions (GFPTU) is cancelling all events commemorating 1 May International Workers’ Day, due to the difficult circumstances facing the Palestinian working class, it stated Thursday.

    The number of unemployed Palestinians has reached approximately 550,000, with unprecedented unemployment rates reaching 85% in the Gaza Strip and 38% in the West Bank, the Federation added according to Qudspress.

    More than 250,000 workers were prevented from accessing their workplace in the 1948 territories since October 7, 2023, and have been without income for more than 30 months., the GFPTU continued. This led to the depletion of their savings and is forcing them to sell their belongings to meet their families’ needs.

    About 50 workers were killed and more than 38,000 arrested during the same period while the Federation holds the Israeli government responsible for conditions of Palestinian workers and demanding they be compensated, their rights restored, and be returned to their jobs.

    The GFPTU noted that they are filed complaints with the International Labour Organization (ILO), but have yet to receive a response, indicating about 90% of workers lack social protection systems, amidst declining job opportunities, the expansion of the informal economy, and rising living costs.

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