JERUSALEM, March 28, 2018 (WAFA) - Palestinian national and Islamic forces in the East Jerusalem town of al-Issawiya said all mosques around the city would be closed on Friday, calling on Muslims to hold Friday prayers at al-Aqsa mosque compound in protest of Israeli plans to hold the festival of Passover Offerings near the compound gates.

The factions in a statement called on Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem to head toward al-Aqsa mosque on Friday and intensify their presence there ahead of Israeli plans to hold the festival of Passover Offerings in Umayyad palaces area, adjacent to the walls of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

The Islamic Religious Endowments (Waqf) Council in Jerusalem warned last Thursday against such plans, stressing that the Umayyad palaces and all that surrounds al-Aqsa Mosque are an integral part of the Islamic Waqf and are purely for Muslims.

Non-Muslim worship at al-Aqsa mosque compound and its surrounding religious Muslim sites is prohibited according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government after Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Despite this agreement, Israeli authorities regularly allow Jewish visitors to enter the site and carry out religious rituals; often under armed guard.

The compound is now administered by the Islamic Endowment, whose employees often face detention by Israeli forces while attempting to protect the site from provocative Israeli right-wing incursions into the site.

T.R.