ISTANBUL

Israel banned on Wednesday Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine, from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied East Jerusalem for six months following a previous eight-day ban, local authorities said.

The ban was issued after Hussein delivered a Friday sermon on July 25, in which he condemned Israel’s "starvation policy" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. He was detained by the Israeli police on the same day.

The Jerusalem Governorate said the mufti was summoned by Israeli authorities on July 27 and slapped with an initial one-week ban.

The Israeli army has killed more than 61,000 people, almost half of them women and children, in a deadly assault in Gaza since October 2023.

The army and illegal settlers have also killed at least 1,006 Palestinians and injured over 7,000 in attacks across the occupied West Bank during the same period, according to the Health Ministry.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.