Alwaght- Over 200,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and from Palestinian villages inside the occupied territories have converged at al-Aqsa Mosque in al Quds (Jerusalem) to mark the second Friday of the Ramadan fasting month.
“An estimated 220,000 Palestinian worshipers showed up to pray at al-Aqsa for the second Friday of Ramadan,” Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for al-Quds Islamic Waqf (a Jordan-run agency responsible for overseeing the city’s Islamic and Christian sites), told reporters.
Israeli regime forces imposed restrictions on Palestinian Muslims attending the al-Aqsa Mosque Friday prayers allowing only males over 40 and females of all ages.
The Israeli regime occupied the West Bank and East al-Quds -- in which the al-Aqsa is located -- during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
In a move never recognized by the international community, the Israeli regime annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the self-proclaimed Zionist regime’s “eternal and undivided” capital.
For Muslims, the al-Aqsa Mosque complex represents the world's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina.
Palestinians are expected to turn out in large numbers during this year’s International Quds Day rallies.
Every year on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, millions of people across the world take to the streets to mark International Quds Day, showing their solidarity with the Palestinians and condemning Israel’s decades-long occupation and atrocities.
This year’s Quds Day comes amid US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, dubbed “the deal of the century,” that translates into Washington’s recognition of the Israeli regime’s apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Palestinians insist that negotiations with the US were useless in the wake of the country’s relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to al-Quds, which Palestinians consider the capital city of their future state.
