Palestinian women try to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Qalandiya checkpoint on the first Friday of Ramadan (Al-Jazeera)

Ramallah -

Immediately after the dawn prayer, Hind Hijazi left her home in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, heading to the city of Jerusalem to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque. When she arrived at the Qalandiya checkpoint two hours later, she was surprised that she was prevented from entering even though she was over 73 years old. She tried in vain once and twice. A fifth time to no avail. Finally, one of the soldiers finally told her, “If you are 100 years old, you will not be allowed to pass.”

Hind believed that her advanced age was the permit that would allow her to enter the Holy City after 6 months of the war on the Gaza Strip, during which Israel prevented all Palestinians in the West Bank from reaching Al-Aqsa.

Hijazi told Al Jazeera Net, "We wait for the month of Ramadan every year to allow us to reach Al-Aqsa and pray there, and even these days we are deprived of it."

This was not the fate of Hijazi alone, but rather the fate of hundreds of Palestinians who exceeded the age groups specified by the occupation authorities to pray at Al-Aqsa on the first Friday of the month of Ramadan, unlike previous years, when they were surprised that those of the specified ages were not allowed to reach Al-Aqsa except after obtaining a prayer permit. for one day.

To obtain this permit, the applicant must obtain a magnetic card issued by the Israeli military liaison bearing a serial number, and obtain it in exchange for a sum of money through the application of the coordinator, who is the official of the Israeli government coordination unit in the Palestinian territories, in order to obtain the permit after entering the card number.

Palestinian women were prevented from crossing the checkpoint even though they were over the age permitted to enter (Al Jazeera)

Unprecedented measures

The new Israeli measures that limit access to Al-Aqsa Mosque to the category of elderly people who hold security permits have deprived thousands of West Bank residents of their only opportunity to visit Jerusalem and pray at Al-Aqsa, after many years of allowing them to pray there during the Friday days of Ramadan.

All women of all ages, accompanying children up to the age of 12, and men over the age of 45 were allowed to enter without the requirement to obtain permits. As for those below that, they were allowed to enter after obtaining permits that had to be applied for in advance.

But this year, the occupation imposed new measures, requiring women to be over 50 years old, accompanying children to be less than 10 years old, and men to be over 55 years old.

Applying for a permit for those over the specified age groups does not mean the possibility of obtaining it, as many of them faced another obstacle, which is rejection for security reasons that are not disclosed, as happened with Abd al-Jawad Abd al-Jawad (62 years old) from the city of Ramallah, who applied for the permit through the coordinator’s application, He holds a magnetic card valid until 2026.

Abdel Jawad used to pray at Al-Aqsa every Friday of Ramadan and seclude himself in the last days of the month as well. He could not leave the checkpoint despite knowing that he would not be allowed to pass through it. Dozens of Palestinians participated in performing the noon prayer in front of him.

Abdel Jawad told Al Jazeera Net, "Before the war, I used to move to Jerusalem without any permit as part of the elderly category. I don't know what changed so that I was refused a permit."

Palestinians perform the first Friday prayer of Ramadan in front of the Qalandiya checkpoint after being prevented from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque (Al Jazeera)

Additional obstacles

Since the aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, the occupation authorities have imposed severe restrictions on the freedom of movement of Palestinians from the north and south of the West Bank to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinian Ahmed Othman - who is from a town near Jenin in the northern West Bank - took many hours to reach Qalandiya due to the large number of checkpoints. He told Al Jazeera Net, “If we have to travel all this distance to reach the checkpoint, we also do not know what the situation might be like in the surrounding area.” Al-Aqsa after announcing the deployment of new forces and barriers at its gates.

Source: Al Jazeera