About 40,000 worshipers performed Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem, while the Friday preacher praised the steadfastness of the people of Gaza and Lebanon and criticized Muslims’ preoccupation with them.
According to an estimate by the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem, about 40,000 residents of Jerusalem and the Palestinian interior performed Friday prayers in the mosque, while eyewitnesses pointed to strict Israeli measures at its doors.
According to the Wadi Hilweh Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem, the occupation forces deployed heavily among the worshipers in the courtyards of the mosque, deployed iron barriers, stopped worshipers and searched them at its doors while they were heading to perform prayers, and also stopped worshipers as they were leaving the mosque.
For his part, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Sarand, praised the steadfastness of the people of Gaza and Lebanon in light of the Israeli aggression, adding, “While Muslims are shedding blood, people of lusts in their ignorance are blinded.”
He continued, “Muslims in the world, especially in Gaza and Lebanon, achieved the highest levels due to the affliction, hunger, deprivation, suffering, pain, killing, and destruction that befell them. They have no helper or refuge from the heat of the sun and the cold of winter, and their tongues express praise and contentment.”
