Over 100K Muslims pray Eid ul-Fitr at Al-Aqsa Mosque
Thousands of Palestinian Muslims from East Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday to mark the Eid al-Fitr, the three-day festival that follows the fasting month of Ramadan.
The Israeli authorities have stepped up security around the flashpoint mosque, deploying 2,000 troops in the area and setting up roadblocks at the Old City’s entrances.
For Muslims, East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque represents the world’s third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount,” claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the unified capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.