RAMALLAH: Friday prayer took place at Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem amid strict Israeli security measures and police obstacles that limited the number of worshippers able to reach the mosque.
And as tensions remained high and violence continued, two Israeli women were shot dead when their car was attacked in the occupied West Bank.
The Islamic Awqaf Department in Jerusalem reported that 130,000 worshippers offered prayers at Al-Aqsa on the third Friday of Ramadan, half as many compared with last year. Israeli forces closed the main access point to the mosque and deployed more than 2,300 soldiers at the gates of Al-Aqsa and the Old City, preventing men below the age of 55 from entering Jerusalem and reaching the mosque.
After Friday prayer, a demonstration took place during which a banner that read “Do not test our patience; Al-Aqsa is a red line” was displayed.
Clashes began at dawn when Israeli police assaulted dozens of worshippers who tried to enter the mosque through the Bab Hatta Gate for Fajr prayer. They also attacked stall owners and vendors in the area.
Sheikh Talib Al-Silwadi, one of the most prominent clerics in Ramallah, who has called on Palestinians to pray at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan, told Arab News that the mosque holds great religious significance for Muslims as it is considered the gateway to heaven.
“Considering the Israeli challenges, we must defend it with all power,” he said. “The least we can do for Al-Aqsa, which faces the danger of Judaization, is to pray in it during Ramadan.”
Earlier, around midnight, Israeli forces arrested a number of young men from Al-Thawri neighborhood of Silwan after a settler shot at them in the nearby town of Al-Tur. Officers also stormed Al-Makassed Hospital in Al-Tur, saying they were searching for injured people.
Meanwhile, two Israeli women, who according to local media reports were sisters, were killed and their mother seriously wounded when their car came under fire near the Jewish settlement of Hamra in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, praised the shooting but did not claim responsibility for it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered a security assessment of the situation. Following the attack, the Israeli army put the city of Jericho and the Jordan Valley under lockdown, set up military checkpoints, and launched a comprehensive search of Palestinian vehicles. Other forces were observed conducting search operations in the mountains and valleys. Israeli army forces also stepped up security procedures at military checkpoints surrounding Nablus.
Col. Hertzi Halevi, chief of the Israel Defense Forces, described the Hamra attack as severe. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said they considered it retaliation for continual Israeli violations at Al-Aqsa, and a message to Israeli authorities that the assault on Muslim prayers at the mosque during Ramadan would not be tolerated.
The Israeli police chief, Yaakov Shabtai, urged settlers who own licensed weapons and are proficient in using them to carry them in support of the army, police and security forces in the face of Palestinian attacks.
Esmat Mansour, a Palestinian expert on Israeli affairs, told Arab News that the Hamra attack was no less dangerous in terms of its implications than missiles fired toward Israel from Lebanon and Gaza.
“It could complicate the security scene more and cause a shift in the security situation in the West Bank,” he said.
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles in Taqu, southeast of Bethlehem, with stones, damaging several. They did the same near the northern entrance to Ramallah. Under the protection of large numbers of Israeli army forces, settlers also attacked Palestinian properties in Khirbet Humsa Al-Tahta in the northern Jordan Valley.
At dawn on Friday, extremist settlers from “price tag” terrorist gangs set fire to vehicles belonging to residents of the Arab city of Kafr Qassem in Israel, vandalized property with racist, anti-Arab graffiti and caused other damage. These gangs are responsible for racist attacks in many Palestinian towns. They also target holy places, mosques, churches, and Islamic and Christian cemeteries.
Israeli restrictions at Al-Aqsa Mosque cut number of worshipers at Friday prayers in half
https://arab.news/664zp
Israeli restrictions at Al-Aqsa Mosque cut number of worshipers at Friday prayers in half
- Amid heightened tensions and continuing violence in many places, two Israeli women were shot dead in their car in the occupied West Bank
- After Friday prayer, a demonstration took place during which a banner that read “Do not test our patience; Al-Aqsa is a red line” was displayed
Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village threatened after record rains
- The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status
SIDI BOU SAID, Tunisia: Perched on a hill overlooking Carthage, Tunisia’s famed blue-and-white village of Sidi Bou Said now faces the threat of landslides, after record rainfall tore through parts of its slopes.
Last week, Tunisia saw its heaviest downpour in more than 70 years. The storm killed at least five people, with others still missing.
Narrow streets of this village north of Tunis — famed for its pink bougainvillea and studded wooden doors — were cut off by fallen trees, rocks and thick clay. Even more worryingly for residents, parts of the hillside have broken loose.
“The situation is delicate” and “requires urgent intervention,” Mounir Riabi, the regional director of civil defense in Tunis, recently told AFP.
“Some homes are threatened by imminent danger,” he said.
Authorities have banned heavy vehicles from driving into the village and ordered some businesses and institutions to close, such as the Ennejma Ezzahra museum.
- Scared -
Fifty-year-old Maya, who did not give her full name, said she was forced to leave her century-old family villa after the storm.
“Everything happened very fast,” she recalled. “I was with my mother and, suddenly, extremely violent torrents poured down.”
“I saw a mass of mud rushing toward the house, then the electricity cut off. I was really scared.”
Her Moorish-style villa sustained significant damage.
One worker on site, Said Ben Farhat, said waterlogged earth sliding from the hillside destroyed part of a kitchen wall.
“Another rainstorm and it will be a catastrophe,” he said.
Shop owners said the ban on heavy vehicles was another blow to their businesses, as they usually rely on tourist buses to bring in traffic.
When President Kais Saied visited the village on Wednesday, vendors were heard shouting: “We want to work.”
One trader, Mohamed Fedi, told AFP afterwards there were “no more customers.”
“We have closed shop,” he said, adding that the shops provide a livelihood to some 200 families.
- Highly unstable -
Beyond its famous architecture, the village also bears historical and spiritual significance.
The village was named after a 12th-century Sufi saint, Abu Said Al-Baji, who had established a religious center there. His shrine still sits atop the hill.
The one-time home of French philosopher Michel Foucault and writer Andre Gide, the village is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a UNESCO decision on its bid for World Heritage status.
Experts say solutions to help preserve Sidi Bou Said could include restricting new development, building more retaining walls and improving drainage to prevent runoff from accumulating.
Chokri Yaich, a geologist speaking to Tunisian radio Mosaique FM, said climate change has made protecting the hill increasingly urgent, warning of more storms like last week’s.
The hill’s clay-rich soil loses up to two thirds of its cohesion when saturated with water, making it highly unstable, Yaich explained.
He also pointed to marine erosion and the growing weight of urbanization, saying that construction had increased by about 40 percent over the past three decades.
For now, authorities have yet to announce a protection plan, leaving home and shop owners anxious, as the weather remains unpredictable.
