Calm at Al Aqsa as worshippers gather for Friday prayers after week of Israeli provocation

Proposals to increase Jewish visits to the site and to build a synagogue there drew protests from Muslim nations

Worshippers arrive at Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem before Friday prayers. Khaled Yacoub Oweis / The National

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Worshippers gathered for Friday prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque in an atmosphere of general calm after heightened tensions earlier in the week over inflammatory comments by Israeli officials.

Israel's Ministry of Heritage announced plans on Tuesday to finance tours for Jews and tourists to Al Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam and a flashpoint in the Palestinian struggle for a separate state. Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he “would put an Israeli flag” in the mosque compound and build a synagogue there if he could.

“We are just here to pray,” one worshipper told The National, as others read the Quran.

Anger at perceived Israeli moves to change the status of the holy site has sparked several rounds of Palestinian-Israeli violence over the past two decades. The Palestinian militant group Hamas named its deadly October 7 raids from Gaza into southern Israel “Operation Al Aqsa Flood”.

Most of those waiting for the prayers to begin on Friday were either young boys or men of middle age and older, in keeping with Israeli practice of restricting entry to young men.

Two of the few worshippers in their twenties said they had come expecting to be turned back but Israeli police had let them enter.

“They let in young people randomly,” one said.

Two eighth-graders said they came at dawn to ensure they would get in, knowing that the police usually curbed the entry of young people.

“They questioned us for a long time,” one of them said.

The status of Al Aqsa Mosque has been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Khaled Yacoub Oweis / The National

An Islamic trust run by Jordan administers the site in East Jerusalem, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War. Under arrangements linked to the 1994 Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty, Jews are not allowed to pray in the grounds of Al Aqsa compound, but they can pray at the nearby Western Wall. Visits to the compound, however, are open to everyone.

Jordan and Egypt, the only Arab countries which have formal peace treaty with Israel, as well as the UAE, have condemned what they regarded as an Israeli escalation following Mr Ben-Gvir's remarks.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi said the UN Security Council must act to “stop the illegal Israeli measures that violate the historical and legal status quo at occupied Jerusalem’s holy sites … before it is too late”.

He said “the situation [in Palestine] is already explosive. The hate-driven ideology enabling the designs to change the identity of the mosque will provide the spark. The consequences will be dangerous.”

Mohammad Al Sayed, Al Aqsa’s main preacher, did not mention the latest Israeli statements during his Friday sermon but said it was every Muslim’s duty to protect the site. He also called on the Muslim world to support “the steadfast faithful” in Palestine, without mentioning Israel's continuing war in Gaza sparked by the October 7 attack.

Unlike in the past, when challenges to the status of Al Aqsa drew tens of thousands of faithful who filled the mosque and its courtyard, only a few thousand people attended the prayers on Friday. They dispersed peacefully afterwards, with Israeli security forces stationed in the compound.

Jordan's peace treaty with Israel does not specifically mention Jordanian custodianship of Al Aqsa, but scholars in the kingdom have argued that the spirit of the agreement is predicated on Israel respecting the status quo that existed before the 1967 war, when the kingdom lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Israel. The two sides, however, have not agreed on a definition of the status quo.

Jordan's custodianship of Al Aqsa is at the centre of its foreign policy in support of the Palestinians and is a major domestic plank for King Abdullah in a country where a large proportion of the population are of Palestinian origin.