Just before 5am at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound, a Muslim worshipper prayed in tears. A few hours later, similar emotion overcame Christians and Jews as the city’s holy sites reopened following the truce with Iran.
Jerusalem’s Old City contains major holy sites for all three Abrahamic religions, which had been shuttered since the start of the war sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.
For the first time in 41 days, Muslim worshippers returned to Al Aqsa Mosque, Jews to the Western Wall and Christians to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
At Al Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest site which was closed during most of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan this year, thousands of worshippers performed the ritual prayer under a heavy police presence.
One man stood by the entrance of the Al-Qibli prayer hall, handing out paper tissues to worshippers overcome with emotion.
Suzan Allam, who came with her husband and daughter, told AFP the return to Al Aqsa was like “a party”.
Hamza al-Afghani, a young Palestinian, spoke of an “indescribable joy”.
“Al Aqsa mosque is Jerusalem’s soul,” another worshipper, who declined to share his name for security reasons, said.
Police began to disperse Muslim worshippers at 6:30 am in order to allow religious Jews to enter the compound, causing anger in the crowd.
