Under a heavy police presence, tens of thousands of Muslims attended the first Friday prayers of Ramadan in east Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a gathering weighed down by the war in Gaza.
Old men leaning on canes, veiled women and smartly dressed children flowed through the gates of the Israeli-annexed Old City for the midday prayer, which unfolded peacefully, though some younger men were turned away by police conducting security checks.
