Tens of thousands of Palestinian Muslims converged on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque to mark the fourth and last Friday of the Ramadan fasting month.
Men over 40, children under 12, and women of all ages were allowed by the Israeli authorities to enter occupied East Jerusalem without permits.
"An estimated 260,000 Palestinian worshipers showed up to pray at Al-Aqsa for the last Friday of Ramadan," Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, director-general of Jerusalem’s Waqf (religious endowments) Agency, told Anadolu Agency.
According to al-Khatib, worshipers are still arriving to the iconic site to mark Laylat al-Qadr, which commemorates the first revelation of the Holy Quran to Prophet Muhammad.
Israeli police, meanwhile, stepped up security at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, deploying hundreds of troops in and around Jerusalem's Old City.
Israel has illegally occupied East Jerusalem, in which the Al-Aqsa is located, since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
In a move never recognized by the international community, Israel annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the self-proclaimed Jewish state’s “eternal and undivided” capital.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount”, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
International law continues to view both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territory”.
