• Worshippers describe an ‘indescribable happiness’, one calls it ‘a miracle’
• Tensions flare as police disperse Muslims at Al Aqsa for Jewish visitors

JERUSALEM : Just before 5am at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound, a Muslim worshipper prayed in tears. A few hours later, similar emotion overcame Christians and Jews as the city’s holy sites reopened following the truce with Iran.

Jerusalem’s Old City contains major holy sites for all three Abrahamic religions, which had been shuttered since the start of the war sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.

For the first time in 41 days, Muslim worshippers returned to Al Aqsa Mosque, Jews to the Western Wall and Christians to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

At Al Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest site which was closed during most of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan this year, thousands of worshippers performed the ritual dawn prayer under a heavy police presence.

One man stood by the entrance of the Al-Qibli prayer hall, handing out paper tissues to worshippers overcome with emotion.

Suzan Allam, who came with her husband and daughter, told AFP the return to Al Aqsa was like “a party”.

Hamza al-Afghani, a young Palestinian, spoke of an “indescribable joy”.

“Al Aqsa mosque is Jerusalem’s soul,” another worshipper, who declined to share his name for security reasons, said.

Police began to disperse Muslim worshippers at 6:30 am in order to allow religious Jews to enter the compound, causing anger in the crowd.

‘Little by little’

A stone’s throw away from Al Aqsa, the same religious fervour was present as Christians celebrated mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which encompasses the sites where Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified, entombed and later resurrected.

Tears streamed from the eyes of Uwde Sliman, a 40-year-old Ethiopian draped in a white shawl, as she came out of the church.

Imad Marcos, a US-Egyptian businessman who makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from Miami every year, was enthusiastic.

“I wasn’t sure that it was going to be open. But when I came over, it was a miracle,” he said. Father Andrea, who officiated mass on Thursday, was not surprised by the few worshippers present “in these difficult times”.

“Little by little, we hope they’ll come back”, he said.

‘Like at home’

At the Western Wall, dozens of Jewish worshippers prayed in the late morning. “I’m so happy to be able to come back. Here I feel at home,” said Ayla, 19.

Yehuda Bandel, a 70-year-old retired teacher from a suburb of Tel Aviv, came with his family to celebrate his grandson’s upcoming bar mitzvah, the Jewish coming-of-age ritual. “It’s the first time that he is wearing tefillin,” Bandel said, referring to the small black leather boxes containing Torah scrolls.

Beyond Jerusalem’s holy sites, Israeli authorities have lifted most restrictions linked to the state of emergency, excluding the country’s northern border area near Lebanon, where the war against Iran-backed Hezbollah continues.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2026