Questions remain about access to the main Islamic congregational mosque in the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem's Old City as Palestinians see the site as essential to their identity.

The Al-Aqsa lies at the heart of Jerusalem's Old City on a hill known to Jews as Har ha-Bayit, or Temple Mount, and to Muslims internationally as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary.

In the news, the al-Aqsa mosque compound is a fuse for conflict between Israel and Palestinians. But in daily life of Muslims, it's a park, holy site and, yes, a symbol of resistance.

A Israeli police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday has triggered a furious reaction from Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and the wider Arab and Muslim world.

Defending Al-Aqsa and fighting for rights to access it, I argue, have become proxy conflicts for both Palestinian claims and the need to defend Islam as a whole.

It is more than bitter irony that Hamas, the Palestinian “Islamic Resistance Movement,” chose to call its massive attack on southern Israel “The Al-Aqsa Flood.” Al-Aqsa is the Arabic name for the ...

Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Omar Kiswani praised His Majesty King Abdullah II for protecting Christian holy sites in Palestine following an Israeli settler attack on Al-Khader Church and the ...

For Muslims, Al Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam. And for Palestinians, it is a potent symbol for the broader Palestinian cause, embraced by Palestinian Muslims and Christians alike.

Al-Aqsa is administered by the Islamic Waqf, a Palestinian civilian administration that manages the site. Although Jewish Israelis are allowed to visit the compound, they can’t pray in it.

On the grounds of the Al-Aqsa complex, one of the most revered places in Islam and Judaism, a delicate balance that governs this holy site is under strain.

Al-Aqsa is the name of the silver-domed mosque inside a 35-acre compound referred to as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, by Muslims, and as the Temple Mount by Jews.

Jerusalem and its sacred locales – specifically Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock – have been sites of Islamic pilgrimage for 15 centuries. Skip to Article. Set weather.