Jerusalem | Pakistan

• Worshippers describe an ‘indescribable happiness’, one calls it ‘a miracle’ • Tensions flare as police disperse Muslims at Al Aqsa for Jewish visitors JERUSALEM : Just before 5am at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound, a Muslim worshipper prayed in tears. A few hours later, similar emotion overcame Christians and Jews as the city’s holy sites reopened following the truce with Iran. Jerusalem’s Old City contains major holy sites for all three Abrahamic religions, which had been shuttered since the start of the war sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28. For the first time in 41 days, Muslim worshippers returned to Al Aqsa Mosque, Jews to the Western Wall and Christians to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. At Al Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest site which was closed during most of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan this year, thousands of worshippers performed the ritual dawn prayer under a heavy police presence. One man stood by the entrance of the Al-Qibli prayer hall, handing out paper tissues to...

Israel said the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem would regain access to Christianity’s holiest site after the decision to block him from entering the Holy Sepulchre on Palm Sunday triggered international condemnation. Israeli police prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa from entering the church, citing security concerns as Israel enforces a ban on gatherings in synagogues, churches and mosques during the ongoing war with Iran, which has brought missile strikes near holy sites. After widespread backlash, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday the Latin Patriarch would get “full and immediate access”. Members of the clergy attend a prayer service in the Church of All Nations held by Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, to mark Palm Sunday in Jerusalem on March 29, 2026. —AFP The Latin Patriarchate said in a statement that Pizzaballa and the Custos of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Ielpo, were travelling privately without a ceremonial procession when officers at the...

Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday mass, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said. “This morning, the Israeli Police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, together with the Custos of the Holy Land, the Most Reverend Fr. Francesco Ielpo, OFM, the official Guardian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, as they made their way to celebrate the Palm Sunday Mass,” a statement from the Patriarchate said. It said the two were stopped while proceeding privately without any characteristics of a procession or ceremonial act, and had to turn back. “As a result, and for the first time in centuries, the Heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” the statement said. “This ...

Hundreds of Muslim worshippers held Eidul Fitr prayers at the gates of Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday, with Israel closing access to the Al-Aqsa mosque and other holy sites over its war on Iran. “Today, Al-Aqsa has been taken from us. It’s a sad and painful Ramazan,” Wajdi Mohammed Shweiki, a silver-haired Palestinian man in his 60s, told AFP. “It’s a catastrophic situation for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for Palestinians in general and for all Muslims across the globe.” Since Israel and the United States started the war on Iran on February 28, Israeli authorities have closed access to Jerusalem’s world-renowned holy sites over security concerns — Al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians and the Western Wall for Jews. As Iranian missile barrages head towards Israel, the authorities have banned gatherings of more than 50 people nationwide to limit potential casualties. In a sign of the risks, police said this week that shrapnel fragments had fallen on the Old City. Research...

Monday’s bus stop shooting in Jerusalem killed six people and injured several others, including a pregnant woman, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said at a press conference during a visit to Budapest. Earlier, emergency service and medical teams “pronounced the deaths of four victims, including a man about 50 years old and three men aged around 30”, a statement from Magen David Adom — Israel’s emergency service — said, adding it was providing medical treatment to several other people, with five evacuated to hospitals. The service received reports of more than a dozen people injured by gunfire on Monday at a road junction in east Jerusalem, with police saying the assailants had been “neutralised”. It later said paramedics and ambulance crews were providing medical treatment and evacuating five “seriously wounded people” who had been sent to hospitals in Jerusalem. “Several other victims, with varying degrees of injury, are also being treated at the scene,” it added. Two Israeli policemen speak to a border...