Friday Prayer Held in Jerusalem 'Calmly and Without Age Restrictions'

The Friday prayer on November 23 was held at the Noble Sanctuary in East Jerusalem (Jerusalem) with the participation of young Palestinians. In recent weeks, Israel had restricted entry to the Al-Aqsa Mosque for worshippers under 50 due to concerns over unrest following prayers. After another week of bloody events and tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, coinciding with meetings in Amman between the Israeli Prime Minister, the King of Jordan, the U.S. Secretary of State, and Palestinian leadership, Israel allowed all Palestinians to hold Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israeli radio reports that this Friday, unlike previous weeks, checkpoints from Arab neighborhoods leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque were removed. On Thursday night, November 22, after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority in Amman, Kerry held a trilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Mr. Kerry called on the parties in the crisis to take any actions necessary to prevent further deterioration and to work towards restoring conditions to those prior to the recent crisis. According to Israeli media reports, Netanyahu assured King Abdullah II and the U.S. Secretary of State that 'no changes' would be made to the Noble Sanctuary, and the administration of these Islamic sites would remain under the Palestinian Islamic Waqf as it has for decades. Jordan would also retain its custodianship of the Noble Sanctuary as before. Israeli radio reported that Netanyahu explicitly told King Abdullah II and John Kerry that all published claims regarding Israel's attempts to dominate Al-Aqsa were 'clear and baseless lies.' According to a report by the French news agency, John Kerry described the meetings in Amman as positive and expressed hope for a return to calm; he stated that Mahmoud Abbas clearly emphasized that necessary steps would be taken to prevent violence. In recent weeks, there has been an assessment that the escalation of unrest and knife attacks or running over Israelis with cars, along with Israel's severe response to Palestinians, could lead to the outbreak of a third intifada, especially as these unrests spread among Arab citizens of Israel. Meanwhile, regional media reports indicate that other unrest occurred on Friday around Jerusalem, where Palestinians attempted to breach security walls to reach Jerusalem, but Israeli forces repelled them. On November 23, Israeli police announced the arrest of another Palestinian who attempted to run over residents of a Jewish settlement in the West Bank with a car, but before he could injure anyone, his vehicle was stopped by Israeli gunfire, and the driver was arrested. In recent days, Israel had arrested two young Palestinians aged 17 and 20 on roads around Ramallah to Jerusalem and near the tomb of Jewish ancestors in Hebron, who were armed with knives 'to attack Israelis.' Last Monday, in three knife attacks on Israelis, two were killed and four were injured in Tel Aviv and around Jerusalem. Prior to that, a 22-year-old Arab with a knife was killed after attacking an Israeli police vehicle, leading to widespread unrest among Arabs residing in Israel. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad issued statements urging Palestinians, especially in Jerusalem, to join the 'Dasa' movement; 'Dasa' in Arabic refers to deliberately running over pedestrians and passengers at train and bus stations in the streets of Jerusalem during recent terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, Jewish spiritual leaders have strongly urged all Jews to refrain from any presence at the Noble Sanctuary for the purpose of visiting their 'Holy Temple Mount,' as this has led to the provocation of Palestinians and further bloodshed. The presence of a handful of right-wing Jewish activists in the Al-Aqsa compound for the past two months has fueled Palestinian anger. The Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque was held 'amid heavy security measures.' An attack by assailants on Israeli citizens in the West Bank resulted in one death. The new EU foreign policy chief stated that a Palestinian state must be established. Netanyahu's reaction to Khamenei's tweet: the Iranian regime is irreformable.