An estimated 90,000 Palestinian Muslims ascended to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, on the first Friday of Ramadan. Muslims from Judea and Samaria were permitted to travel to Jerusalem.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced on Thursday night that government ministers “approved the recommendation of the security establishment for the entry of a limited number of Muslim worshippers from Judea and Samaria to the Temple Mount on the Fridays during Ramadan, in a similar format to that which existed last year.”
Last week, the Israel Police recommended that 10,000 Muslims at a time from Judea and Samaria be allowed to pray at the Temple Mount, given they submit a request in advance. Ex-prisoners released under the current ceasefire deal will not be permitted to enter the compound. Security officials also recommended allowing entry only to children younger than 12, men older than 55, or women over the age of 50.
There are no restrictions on Arab Israelis.
3,000 security personnel will be deployed at checkpoints every day of the month of Ramadan.
In response, Hamas posted to Telegram, calling on Palestinians to arrive at the site for less than religious reasons, telling them to oppose “by any means” attempts by Israel to “desecrate and control” the site.
Harun Nasser al-Din, who oversees Hamas’s Jerusalem office but has been based abroad in recent months, called for a “full confrontation against the occupation’s incursions, an uprising against its projects, and no surrender to attempts at Judaization and expulsion.”
On Thursday, Hamas refused to release more hostages without a permanent ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is believed to still have 24 living hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that led to the ongoing war. It is also holding the bodies of 34 others who were either killed in the initial attack or in captivity, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in the 2014 war.
President Trump posted what he called a “last warning” to Hamas on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. ‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye – You can choose,” the president’s post read. “Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you.”
“Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages,” the president wrote. “If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”
In an article first published in 2016, Dr. Kedar, a senior lecturer in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University, is a long-time advocate for a more precise and accurate understanding of the significance of Jerusalem for some Muslims by dispelling some clear lies perpetuated about the Temple Mount. Dr. Kedar explained that Al-Aqsa is mentioned once in the Koran, and Jerusalem is never named even once.
“Since the Haj pilgrimage is one of the five basic Islamic commandments, the Umayads were forced to choose Jerusalem as their alternative for a pilgrimage site,” Dr. Kedar explained. “In order to justify choosing Jerusalem, the Umayyads rewrote the story told in the Koran, moving the al-Aqsa mosque to Jerusalem and adding, for good measure, the myth of the night-time journey of Mohammed to al-Aqsa. This is the reason the Sunnis now consider Jerusalem their third holiest city.”
“Shia Islam, mercilessly persecuted by the Umayya Caliphate, did not accept the holy Jerusalem canard, which is the reason the second holiest city to Shiites is Najif in Iraq, the burial place of Shiite founder Ali bin Abi Talib. Many of the Shiite elders – Iranian and Hezbollah – only began to call Jerusalem holy after the Khomeni rebellion in 1979 so as to keep the Sunnis from accusing them of being soft on Zionism.”
