After 16 yrs, Palestinians pray at Jerusalem’s Rahma Mosque

JERUSALEM (AA): For the first time in 16 years, Palestinians on Friday prayed at the Bab al-Rahma Mosque, located inside East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

The Israeli authorities closed the mosque in 2003. In 2017, an Israeli court upheld the closure order.

But on Friday, the Religious Endowments Authority, a Jordan-run agency mandated with overseeing East Jeru-salem’s Muslim and Christian holy sites, announced the reopening of the mosque after a 16-year hiatus.

Religious Endowments Authority director Sheikh Abdul Azim Salhab ceremoniously opened the doors of the mosque, in which grateful worshipers performed Friday prayers. On Monday, the Israeli authorities closed the Al-Rahma Gate, which leads to the mosque of the same name, preventing hundreds of Palestinian worshippers from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina.

Earlier Friday, Israeli police arrested dozens of Palestinians in and around the flashpoint site in hopes of preempting anticipated demonstrations against the gate’s continued closure. In a statement, the Committee of the Families of the Prisoners in Jerusalem, a Palestinian NGO, said police had so far detained more than 40 Palestinians in different parts of the city. Since Monday, Palestinians have gathered to pray near the Al-Rahma Gate, which is located just east of the iconic Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid sporadic clashes with Israeli police.

The Islamic Endowments Authority, mandated with overseeing East Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian holy sites, has lodged repeated requests with the Israeli authorities for the gate to be permanently reopened.