Israeli police will deploy 3,000 personnel in occupied East Jerusalem before the first Friday prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Al Jazeera reports.
Additional forces will be deployed across the city, especially near its crossings and in the alleys of the Old City. Israel estimates tens of thousands of Palestinian worshippers will attend the weekly prayers.
Since the start of Ramadan, Israel has restricted the entry of Palestinian worshippers from the occupied West Bank into the mosque, allowing only Palestinians from East Jerusalem and from inside Israel to access the site.
Palestinians view these restrictions as part of a broader Israeli policy to “Judaize” East Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and erase its Arab and Islamic identity.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
