Worshippers Perform Dawn Prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound

Worshippers performed dawn prayers at the Qibli Prayer Hall inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, defying ongoing Israeli access restrictions that have intensified across the holy site in recent months. The faithful gathered in the early hours before sunrise to perform Fajr prayer at one of Islam's three holiest sanctuaries, with images circulating on social media showing rows of worshippers inside the historic prayer hall.

The dawn gathering comes against a backdrop of tightening Israeli controls on Palestinian access to the compound, particularly affecting young men from the West Bank who have been routinely turned away at checkpoints leading to the Old City. Israeli police have maintained a heavy presence around the mosque's gates, conducting identification checks and selectively barring worshippers under what authorities describe as security measures. Palestinian residents of Jerusalem and Arab citizens of Israel constitute the bulk of those still able to reach the compound for daily prayers.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, has been administered under a longstanding custodianship arrangement by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan since 1924. Under the status quo arrangement preserved since 1967, non-Muslims may visit but are prohibited from praying at the site, though incursions by extremist Israeli settlers under police protection have grown more frequent over the past two years.

Qatar has consistently positioned itself as a leading defender of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa, with Doha repeatedly condemning Israeli violations at the holy site through official statements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at international forums. The State of Qatar has channelled significant humanitarian and reconstruction funding to Jerusalem and the broader Palestinian territories, and His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has emphasised the centrality of the Palestinian cause to Qatari foreign policy on numerous occasions.

The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian-Palestinian body that manages the compound, has documented a sharp rise in restrictions on Muslim worshippers since the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October 2023. Friday prayer congregations, which once drew hundreds of thousands of worshippers during the holy month of Ramadan, have been reduced to a fraction of historical numbers due to Israeli military closures imposed across the West Bank and at entry points to occupied East Jerusalem.

Gulf states, alongside the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation headquartered in Jeddah, have repeatedly warned that any alteration to the historical and legal status of Al-Aqsa would represent a dangerous escalation with regional consequences. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have all reaffirmed their commitment to the Hashemite custodianship and to a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.