60,000 worshipers perform Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa despite occupation restrictions
Amman2 min read
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Tens of thousands of Palestinians performed Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the restrictions and tightening measures imposed by the occupation forces on thousands of worshipers arriving in the occupied city of Jerusalem.
The Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem stated that about 60,000 worshipers were able to perform the prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid strict military procedures, and a heavy deployment of occupation forces around the city, the old city, and at the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and inside its corridors, courtyards, and pulpits.
The occupation forces said they had redeployed 3,000 heavily armed police and special forces, and imposed strict measures on the arrival of worshipers at the fixed military checkpoints, and deployed checkpoints and iron barriers around Jerusalem, the old city, and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The occupation police added that they arrested 9 worshipers from the old city and its surroundings on the pretext of entering Jerusalem without obtaining the necessary permits from the military government in Beit El.
In his sermon, Sheikh Yousef Abu Sneineh, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, addressed the complex and intertwined social situation, the social scourges affecting Jerusalem and its people, and what the country and its people are subjected to as a result, and the problems and crises Jerusalem is suffering from.
Abu Sneineh called for patience and steadfastness under the weight of a suffocating economic siege, where the poverty rate in East Jerusalem is about 78% according to reports by human rights organizations, with rising unemployment rates and declining levels of educational and health services.
He stressed that economic pressure produces a fertile environment for social disintegration, pointing to the siege imposed on the entry of worshipers, the restriction of livelihoods, and the arrest of young people as factors that undermine social fabric and weaken community immunity.
The preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque warned against discord and conflict, contrary to the Quranic command,
Allah says: «And obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not dispute, lest you fail and your strength goes away», as discord and disagreement is the first cause of the loss of strength and prestige.
He explained that the weakness of awareness of identity and history causes the nation to lose its compass and become easy to target.
