The al-Aqsa Mosque compound<\/a>, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, is the third-holiest place in Islam. The site is also the holiest in Judaism, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.\n <\/p>\n\n In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of eight countries \u2014 Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt \u2014 denounced Israel\u2019s \u201ccontinued closure (of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem) to Muslim worshippers, particularly during the holy month of Ramadan.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The ministers said that Israel has no sovereignty over occupied Jerusalem or its Islamic and Christian holy sites. They stressed that the Jerusalem Endowments and al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department, affiliated with Jordan, is the ruling authority.\n <\/p>\n
\n They called on Israel to halt the restrictions and on the international community to stand against Israel\u2019s \u201congoing violations and illegal practices against Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, as well as its violations of the sanctity of these holy places.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"Nafisa](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2264458222.jpg?c=original&q=w_1280,c_fill\/f_avif\")
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\n Citing public safety concerns, Israeli police said in a statement last week that all holy sites in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City \u2014 including the Western Wall, the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre \u2014 would remain closed, barring worshippers and visitors of any faith.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIsrael is currently facing a complex period that requires personal responsibility from every citizen,\u201d the statement added in reference to the county\u2019s war with Iran.\n <\/p>\n
\n Israeli police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne told CNN today in reaction to the joint statement that the closure has nothing to do with Ramadan, but \u201ceverything to do with safety.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cCan you imagine dispersing tens of thousands of people during a ballistic missile siren when there is limited to no nearby shelters? And if it became a stampede? If it turned into a mass casualty event?\u201d Elsdunne added.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Muslims pray in the streets since al-Aqsa mosque remains closed Muslims pray in the streets since al-Aqsa mosque…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-343194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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