Calls for Palestinians to gather around Al-Aqsa Mosque on Eid amid continued Israeli closure

The Islamic Movement within Israel’s 1948 borders has called on Palestinians to gather in large numbers around Jerusalem Al-Aqsa Mosque in the run-up to Eid al-Fitr, as Israel continues to close Islam’s third most holy site during the final days of Ramadan.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the movement, which was officially banned by Israel in 2015, called on Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents as well as Palestinians living inside Israel to gather in their thousands at the Al-Aqsa Mosque’s gates and the walls of the city of Jerusalem.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, which contains the city’s holy sites, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Since then, it has steadily attempted to encroach on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which many Israelis believe to be the site of Solomon’s Temple.

Israeli extremists regularly storm the mosque’s grounds and perform provocative rituals under the protection of Israeli security forces.

Ever since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February, Israel has closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a “security measure”.

However, the Islamic Movement said that this was a cover for measures aimed at imposing a new reality in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

It also called on the Islamic Waqf Department, which is associated with Jordan, to close the mosques surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque on the day of Eid al-Fitr, so that worshippers could gather around the sacred site, considering it unacceptable for Al-Aqsa to remain empty while nearby mosques are overcrowded.

The Islamic Movement also called on Jordan to assume its official role in protecting the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, who is also the main preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, issued a fatwa encouraging Muslims to head toward the holy site and pray at the nearest possible point, supporting the Islamic Movement’s calls to close nearby mosques.