JERUSALEM, Tuesday, February, 19, 2019 (WAFA) – Palestinian Muslim Waqf officials announced Wednesday morning that recently-sealed gate inside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound was reopened.

Acting Supreme Judge of Jerusalem Sheikh Wasef al-Bakri announced that Israeli police removed the lock and chain they had placed a day earlier on the metal gate leading to Bab al-Rahmeh Gate, on the eastern wall of Jerusalem’s Old City, and released all Palestinians detained during ensuing tensions.  

He said that crisis arising from Israeli police’s closure of metal gate, a step that caused a great amount of tensions in Jerusalem, was resolved and the situation was restored to the status quo that existed before the closure.

Al-Bakri noted that the crisis was successfully resolved thanks to the intensive contacts and efforts made by Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jordan’s Representative Office to Palestine in addition to the Jerusalem Waqf officials.

The Jerusalem Waqf authorities, al-Bakri added, would repair the metal gate and place a new lock on it.

He affirmed that Bab al-Rahma is an integral part of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which will remain under the sovereignty of the Jordanian Waqf authorities and Abdullah’s custodianship.

This came a day after Israeli military police sealed the metal gate leading to a large Waqf-owned structure near Bab al-Rahma, also known as the Golden Gate; a move that was perceived by Palestinian Muslim worshipers as a harbinger to division of the mosque compound and allocation of the eastern section for Israeli Jewish settlers.

K.F.