Israel Scotches Permits For Gazans To Visit Temple Mount

The Times of Israel reports: Israel has revoked permission for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to travel to Jerusalem for Friday prayers on the Temple Mount, claiming exploitation of the system and misuse of permits granted by Israeli authorities.

As part of a ceasefire agreement that ended the 2014 Gaza war, some 200 Gazans above the age of 60 have received weekly permission to enter Israel in order to worship at the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sources at the Palestinian liaison office said Israel canceled the agreement because Palestinian worshipers were, against the rules, not returning to the Gaza Strip on the same day of the visit, according to the Palestinian Maan News agency.

The Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a branch of Israel’s Defense Ministry, said the decision was due to “inappropriate misusing the permit and exploiting inappropriately the Israeli civil policy.”