Tens of Thousands Pack Al-Aqsa Mosque to Protest
AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Tens of thousands of Palestinian worshippers packed into Al-Aqsa Mosque on the final Friday of Ramadan to mark the International Quds Day and many stayed on to protest in support of Palestinians facing eviction from homes on land claimed by Jewish settlers. With health restrictions mostly lifted, worshippers packed tightly together as they knelt in prayer on the tree-lined hilltop plateau containing the mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. But ongoing tensions in the city at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were front and centre in the Friday sermon given by Sheikh Tayseer
Abu Sunainah. "Our people will remain steadfast and patient in their homes, in our blessed land,” Abu Sunainah said of the multiple Palestinian families in East Al-Qud’s Sheikh Jarrah who could be evicted by the occupying regime of Israel.Following prayers, thousands remained on the compound to protest against the evictions, with many waving Palestinian flags and chanting a refrain common during Al-Quds protests: "With our soul and blood, we will redeem you, Aqsa”. The Zionist regime’s supreme court will hold a hearing on the Sheikh Jarrah evictions on Monday. Sheikh Jarrah’s residents are overwhelmingly Palestinian.