25 June 2017•Update: 26 June 2017
By Mahmoud Barakat
ANKARA
Muslims across the Middle East celebrated the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday on Sunday, a three-day festival that follows the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Muslims in Arab countries -- including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Palestine, Jordan, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria -- performed Eid prayers at mosques and public venues across their respective countries.
In Egypt, millions of Muslims performed Eid prayers in more than 5,000 open areas across the country amid a stepped-up security presence, while President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi performed prayers at a mosque at Egypt’s naval headquarters in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, some 90,000 Muslims converged on the iconic Al-Aqsa Mosque -- which for Muslims represents the world's third holiest site -- to perform Eid prayers.
In Qatar, which continues to face an unprecedented diplomatic crisis with a handful of its Gulf neighbors, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his father, former Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, attended Eid al-Fitr prayers in capital Doha.
And in Jordan, thousands performed Eid prayers in the main prayer hall of the Hussein Sports City in central Amman.
