Israeli authorities barred Muslim worshippers from entering the al-Aqsa Mosque compound for Eid al-Fitr prayers — the first such closure since 1967, according to The National1. Police deployed tear gas and stun grenades against hundreds of worshippers who had gathered in streets around the Old City. Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, is one of the two most important holidays in the Islamic calendar.
The closure breaks a status quo that held for 59 years through conditions arguably more dangerous than the present. Israel maintained Muslim access to al-Aqsa during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, through both intifadas, during every Gaza operation, and through the 2021 crisis when clashes inside the compound helped trigger an 11-day war. When Israel installed metal detectors at the compound's gates in 2017 after a shooting attack, Palestinian protests and Jordanian diplomatic pressure forced their removal within two weeks. The consistent lesson of six decades: restrictions on al-Aqsa access generate political costs that exceed whatever security rationale produced them.
The timing compounds the effect. The closure fell on the same day the war disrupted Nowruz celebrations inside Iran — two religious calendars broken simultaneously by the same conflict. For Iran's population, Nowruz is a cultural and national marker predating Islam; Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's silence through the holiday was itself a measure of the state's disarray. For the 1.8 billion Muslims who regard al-Aqsa as the third holiest site in Islam, the Eid closure is visible confirmation that the war's consequences extend beyond Iranian and Israeli territory into the practice of their faith. Jordan, which retains custodial authority over the Haram al-Sharif through the Waqf, has not yet issued a public response.
The security rationale is not irrational — a missile crater appeared 400 metres from the compound the same day. But every previous Israeli government that weighed security concerns against the cost of restricting al-Aqsa access concluded that access must be maintained. The decision to reverse that calculus on the single most symbolically charged day of the Islamic year will register across a far wider audience than those dispersed with tear gas at the Old City's gates on Friday morning.
