Al-Aqsa Mosque Remains Closed for 40 Days

Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, has now been closed to Muslim worshippers for forty consecutive days, Palestinian officials and religious authorities confirmed Wednesday, as international condemnation mounted over what critics are calling an unprecedented assault on the sanctity of occupied Jerusalem.

The closure, enforced by Israeli authorities under what they describe as security measures, has barred tens of thousands of Palestinian Muslims from accessing the mosque compound known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif and to Israelis as the Temple Mount. The forty-day mark has intensified alarm among Palestinian leadership, Islamic scholarly institutions, and Arab governments who warn that the prolonged restriction constitutes a systematic violation of international law and longstanding agreements governing access to the holy site.

The Palestinian Authority called on the United Nations Security Council to convene an emergency session, describing the closure as a deliberate act of collective punishment designed to alter the demographic and religious character of occupied Jerusalem. Senior Palestinian official Hussam Zomlot reiterated that any restriction on Muslim worship at Al-Aqsa undermines the Oslo-era status quo arrangements that have governed the site for decades.

Qatar, which has consistently championed Palestinian rights on the international stage, condemned the closure in the strongest possible terms. The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement calling for the immediate and unconditional reopening of the mosque, warning that the prolonged closure risks inflaming religious tensions across the broader Muslim world. Doha urged the international community to apply concerted diplomatic pressure on Israeli authorities to restore unrestricted access without delay.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, headquartered in Jeddah, convened an emergency virtual meeting this week among its fifty-seven member states. Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE joined Qatar in issuing formal statements of condemnation, reflecting a rare show of unified Arab diplomatic response. The Arab League's secretary-general described the closure as a red line that the international community must not allow to stand.

Religious scholars at Al-Azhar in Cairo issued a fatwa describing the prevention of Muslim prayer at Al-Aqsa as a grave offense under Islamic jurisprudence, calling on Muslim-majority governments to pursue every legal and diplomatic avenue available under international humanitarian law.

Human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented repeated incidents of Israeli security forces preventing worshippers, elderly Palestinians, and foreign Muslim visitors from approaching the mosque's gates during the closure period. Medical workers report that at least twelve Palestinians have been injured in confrontations near the compound since the restrictions began.

The Al-Aqsa compound sits atop the Old City of Jerusalem, a site of profound religious and political significance that has been at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for generations. Under existing arrangements, Jordan serves as the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, a role Amman has described as non-negotiable and which gives it formal standing to demand the mosque's reopening through diplomatic channels.