200,000 Muslims pray at Jerusalem shrine
28/10/2005 - 14:38:24Tens of thousands of Muslims prayed at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, with Israeli troops restricting entry of worshippers from the West Bank to those over the age of 45.
At one of the Israeli checkpoints north of Jerusalem, border police fired stun grenades after some in a crowd of 5,000 Palestinians waiting to pass threw stones. Eventually, those over 45 were allowed to reach Jerusalem.
Israeli troops also set up security checks at the gates of Jerusalem’s walled Old City, home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine.
Yesterday, Israel had reimposed a blanket closure of the West Bank and Gaza in the wake of a Palestinian suicide bombing in an Israeli town.
