Israeli authorities have prohibited Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Ahmad Hussein from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for six months, his lawyer Khaldoun Najem told Agence France-Presse. The written order, issued this week, bars the city’s top Muslim cleric from the site in the annexed Old City of East Jerusalem until January 2026. Najem said the police imposed the ban without questioning Hussein or holding a hearing. According to the attorney, the decision cites a Friday sermon the mufti delivered in late July that highlighted mounting hunger in Gaza amid Israel’s nearly two-year war against Hamas. Israeli police did not respond to requests for comment. The Al-Aqsa compound—Islam’s third-holiest shrine and Judaism’s holiest, known to Jews as the Temple Mount—has long been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Hussein had already faced an eight-day exclusion order after the sermon, and the new six-month ban follows recent visits to the site by Jewish settlers and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that drew Palestinian condemnation.