Following a police shooting, Israeli authorities on Friday cancelled Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time in nearly five decades, a Palestinian cleric said.
The decision followed a shootout in which Israeli police shot dead three Palestinians who they claimed were carrying out an armed attack inside the flashpoint Al-Aqsa compound.
Following the attack, Israeli police cleared the mosque and closed it to the public.
Yoram Ha-Levy, Jerusalem police district commander, said that Friday prayers are cancelled at the mosque.
Israeli police also beefed up security, deploying hundreds of troops and erecting roadblocks at the entrances of Jerusalem’s Old City, eyewitnesses said.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Omar Qiswani, the mosque’s director, condemned Al-Aqsa’s closure.
“This is a dangerous step and clear attack on freedom of worship,” he said.
The mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, has called on Muslims to gather around the old city walls to do their Friday prayers.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, a preacher at Al-Aqsa, said that the first time Friday prayer was not held at the mosque was in late August 1969, a day after Michael Rohan, an Australian, set the mosque on fire.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the city in 1980, claiming all of Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s "eternal" capital -- a move never recognized by the international community.
Sacred to Muslims, Jews, and Christians, Jerusalem is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which for Muslims represents the world's third-holiest site.
