Israel to limit Al-Aqsa access Friday
AFP
JERUSALEM- Israeli police said it will restrict entry to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the first Friday weekly prayers of the Ramadan holy month to prevent any disturbances.
An army spokeswoman told AFP on the eve of the weekly prayers that entry to the compound was being limited to men over the age of 50 and women over 45.
The measures are aimed at preventing any possible outbreak of violence, the military said.
In 2000, a visit to the compound by Ariel Sharon, a right-wing politician who went on to become prime minister, sparked the so-called Al-Aqsa Intifada, a bloody Palestinian uprising in which thousands of people were killed.
During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn to dusk and strive to be more pious and charitable.
The sprawling esplanade containing the Al-Aqsa mosque and the adjacent Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem's historic Old City is the third holiest site in Islam after Saudi Arabia's Mecca and Medina.
It is the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
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