Israel allows 400 Gazans to visit Jerusalem, pray at Al-Aqsa for Eid al-Adha

The Israeli authorities have allowed 400 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to visit the city of Jerusalem and pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque during Eid al-Adha, according to the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. 

In a press statement sent to The New Arab, the Hamas-led interior ministry said that "Israel required that men must be over 55 years old and women must be over 50 years in order to be granted permits to reach Jerusalem and pray at Al-Aqsa."

Asaad Nassar, a resident of the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, expressed his joy in being able to obtain a permit, therefore giving him the opportunity to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque after years of being denied.

"I was very eager to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque (...) I have been denied access to this holy place for more than 15 years,"  the 65-year-old father of ten said to The New Arab. 

"We have the right to visit all Palestinian cities and towns and to practice our religious rituals freely without any restrictions," Nassar added. 

He called on the international community to help the Palestinians live "in safety and peace."

For her part, Fathia Abdel Jawad from Gaza City shed tears of joy as soon as she arrived at Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the Eid prayer. She's been waiting for this moment for years until a permit was granted by the Israeli authorities. 

"Several years ago, Israel allowed women to visit Al-Aqsa, but I could not obtain the permit because my age was less than what Israel required (...) I wished that the years would pass quickly so that I could visit Jerusalem and pray in Jerusalem," the 51-year-old mother of six told The New Arab.

"It is not easy for us [Palestinians in Gaza] not to be able to reach Jerusalem and the West Bank, despite the fact that the distance between us does no more than tens of kilometres," she said. 

"The tightened  Israeli restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip isolate us from the whole world and not only the Palestinian territories," she complained. 

However, she hopes that Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian factions will reach a long-term ceasefire agreement that will allow Gazans to easily move between all Palestinian cities, especially Jerusalem, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Meanwhile, about a further 500 Gazans have received approval to visit their families inside the occupied West Bank and the 1948 Palestinian lands, according to the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

Ghassan Alyan, the Israeli government coordinator in the Palestinian territories, announced in a press statement that the issuance of all permits to Gazans will be subject to security assessments.

Elham al-Shami from Gaza City is busy preparing her luggage to travel to Ramallah in the West Bank to spend the last day of Eid Al-Adha with her family for the first time in 15 years.

Al-Shami and her Gaza-based husband moved to live in Gaza in 1997. In the past, she used to visit her family at least every two months and spend several days in the West Bank.

However, Israel has prevented her from visiting the West Bank since 2007, after imposing a tight blockade on the coastal enclave.

"I am very excited to spend the Eid holiday with my family and to meet with my mother, brothers and relatives there," the  40-year-old mother of five children told The New Arab.

She hopes that her children will be allowed to visit their grandfather's house one day.