The Israeli police, continuing their restrictions around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, prevented Palestinian youths from performing the Friday prayer there this week, just as they did in the past weeks.
Israeli forces in the Old City area took intensive security measures with iron barriers and did not allow Palestinian youths and sometimes even elderly Palestinians to enter Al-Aqsa starting in the morning.
Israeli police also established checkpoints at the outer gates of Al-Aqsa and were significantly deployed in the narrow streets of the Old City. Verbal altercations occurred between Palestinians not allowed into Al-Aqsa and Israeli police.
Hundreds of Palestinians who were not allowed into Al-Aqsa for the Friday prayer performed their prayers in a mosque in the Ra's el-Amud neighborhood, overlooking the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and on the sidewalks around the mosque.
Israeli police used tear gas and foul-smelling water cannons on Palestinians who wanted to pray in the Wadi al-Jawz neighborhood near Al-Aqsa.
