Tens of thousands of Palestinians worshipped at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the last Friday afternoon of the fasting month of Ramadan after early morning clashes again erupted at the flashpoint holy site.
Tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers attended the first Friday prayers of the holy month of Ramadan at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, in the largest such gathering since the coronavirus pandemic began.
A new report has shed light on Hezbollah’s systematic use of civilian infrastructure to shield its missile storage and launch sites in Lebanon.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have been reportedly engaged in secret talks since last December, through American mediation, over including Saudi representatives in the Islamic Waqf Council at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This development has been taking place against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s deal of the century, and the plan to apply Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the large settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.
The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf on Tuesday uploaded pictures to its official Facebook page showing Waqf employees carrying out unauthorized digs on the Temple Mount.
Islamic religious authorities have closed the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock as a precautionary measure against the spread of the coronavirus. However, outdoor prayers will still be permitted outside the two shrines housed in Jerusalem.
The Islamic authority that oversees Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem rejected Tuesday an Israeli court order to close a contested religious area that has ignited tension between Palestinian worshipers and Israeli police in recent weeks.
The two senior Waqf officials were arrested on Sunday in a follow-up to Friday’s riots on the Temple Mount in which thousands of Palestinians stormed the Golden Gate, which had been closed by a court order since 2003.
The Jerusalem Wakf Council announced on Sunday that a section of the Temple Mount that was closed by Israel in 2003 will remain open, even after the arrest of two of its senior officials.
Palestinian worshipers clashed with Israeli police on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Tuesday, trying to force their way into an area of the flash-point holy compound that has been closed for years. Police said 19 Palestinians were arrested.
A record number of Jews were said to have visited the Temple Mount on Sunday to mark the Tisha B’Av fast mourning the destruction of the two biblical temples, prompting rebukes from Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
U.S. Reps. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.) and David B. McKinley (R-W.Va.) no doubt anticipated an eye-opening experience when they visited the Temple Mount on Thursday as part of their current trip to Israel. So imagine their surprise when they were detained by Israel police after an Islamic Waqf official, which administers the Temple Mount, lodged a complaint against them.
In a serious replay of past “archaeological crimes,” the Muslim Waqf on the Temple Mount has once again recklessly dug in areas rich with ancient artifacts, this time on the raised platform around the Dome of the Rock, and Israelis are upset that Prime Minister Ehud Barak refuses to stop it.
Israeli President Moshe Katsav demanded on Wednesday that the government stop the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount, adding that he could not shake off the impression that the Waqf’s goal is not only to reinforce Muslim control of the Mount, but “to erase every Jewish trace” there.
Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday finally requested police to meet with Islamic Waqf officials in Jerusalem and halt the reported destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount.
Fresh eye-witness accounts indicate the Muslim Waqf has added a new tunnel accessing the ancient Hulda Gates corridor to its growing list of “archaeological crimes” on the Temple Mount.