“Sheikh Raed Salah is now in Al-Aqsa Mosque and he was not arrested, as is common practice. The police tried to block his entry, but he eventually entered Al-Aqsa,” Lawyer Khaled Zabarka said.

Sheikh Raed Salah performed the Maghrib prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to local sources.

Sheikh Raed Salah Abu Shakra is a Palestinian religious leader from Umm al-Fahm, Occupied Palestine. He is the leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in occupied Palestine.

He became the mayor of Umm al-Fahm in 1989 but stepped down in 2001 to focus on his religious activities.

Salah is a popular figure in the Muslim world and among Palestinians for his staunch defense of al-Aqsa against what they see as israeli attempts to take it over.

He has held sermons praising the “defenders of al-Aqsa” and his Northern Branch has organized free bus trips from Palestinian localities in Occupied Palestine to Jerusalem in order to strengthen the bond between Muslims and the holy site.

The zionist occupation regime has accused Salah of inciting to violence and of supporting terrorism. It has arrested Salah numerous times and he has spent many years in israeli prisons.

In 2021, Raed Salah was awarded Al-Murabit Prize by the International Union of Muslim Scholars. (ILKHA)