The announcement of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran has led to the reopening of holy sites to worshippers in occupied East Jerusalem and the removal of a number of movement barriers in the occupied West Bank. On Friday, April 9, more than 100,000 Muslim worshippers streamed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the first Friday prayers since before the war started on February 28. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, shuttered throughout Holy Week, also reopened in time for Holy Fire Saturday – held the day before Easter is celebrated by Orthodox denominations.
After weeks of empty streets, children performed music in the Palestinian Scouts’ procession through the Christian Quarter. But the celebrations also came with an overwhelming Israeli security presence, and police violently arresting Palestinian Christian scouts during the processions. Palestinian Authority officials said Israeli forces removed Palestinian flag patches from scouts’ uniforms.
Even the April 9 reopening of Al-Aqsa after 40 days of closure was tempered by growing settler incursions, including on April 7 and April 12, when Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the compound under police protection, performing Jewish religious rituals. Ben-Gvir declared from the site that “today, you feel like the master of the house here,” as he celebrated the increased normalisation of Jewish prayer on the site, despite the official ban on it. The next day, settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound again.
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the incidents as violations of the site’s status quo. Jordan officially holds custodianship of the shrine. Despite the Iran ceasefire, Israeli air attacks and artillery fire continued across the Gaza Strip throughout the week.
On April 8, Israeli forces killed Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah in a drone attack on his vehicle as it travelled along the coastal road in Gaza City – bringing the total number of Palestinian media workers killed since October 2023 to at least 262, the highest such toll in any recorded conflict. Wishah is the 12th Al Jazeera journalist or media worker in Gaza to have been killed by Israeli forces during that time. On April 9, nine-year-old Ritaj Rihan was shot and killed in northern Gaza by Israeli soldiers while studying in a tent used for classes.
The same day, an additional two Palestinians were killed and five were wounded in an attack on Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, with two others killed in separate drone attacks in central Khan Younis and the Bardawil area of al-Mawasi, in southern Gaza. On April 11, a strike on a police checkpoint in central Gaza’s Bureij camp killed at least six people, and another person was killed during a second strike in Beit Lahiya the same day. Then, on April 13, another three Palestinians were killed by an Israeli drone attack at a security checkpoint in the al-Mazraa area east of Deir el-Balah, followed by another Palestinian killed by Israeli fire later in the day in the al-Mawasi area.
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