Temple Mount closed for 3 weeks as virus cases soar

Waqf closes Temple Mount for 3 weeks as virus cases soar

Jerusalem’s Temple Mount will be closed starting Friday following a spike in coronavirus cases, the authority that administers the city’s Muslim holy places announces.

With cases of the virus on the rise in Israel and the West Bank, the Waqf authority held an emergency meeting with health officials.

Waqf members decide to “suspend the entry of worshipers starting from Friday afternoon (September 18) for a period of three weeks.”

“We hope that citizens will understand this procedure, in order to preserve their health and wellbeing,” Waqf member Hatem Abdel Qader tells AFP.

The closure coincides with a three-week lockdown to be imposed by Israel, which controls the entrances of the compound.

The call to prayer will continue to ring out across Jerusalem’s Old City, Qader says, while Waqf employees will be allowed to pray at the site.

The Waqf shut the compound at the onset of the pandemic in March, when sweeping closures upended religious life in a way not seen for centuries.

Israeli authorities have reported nearly 167,000 coronavirus cases, with 1,147 deaths.

— AFP