We arrived around 11:45 AM, joined by our colleagues Avital Touch and Ruthie Barkai. On the stairs leading down to Damascus Gate, there are already quite a few stalls selling fruits, vegetables, toys, housewares, and various haberdashery. Food stalls are expected to arrive later.

Inside the Old City, shops and stalls are also selling a wide array of goods: prayer equipment (mats, chairs, and stools), various types of food, clothing, and toys. At the bottom of the Damascus Gate descent, where the road forks into Al-Wad (Hagai) St. and Khan al-Zeit (Beit HaBad) St., there is a station preparing Qatayef, a special pastry for Ramadan. Most shopping is done on the way back from prayers in preparation for the evening Iftar meal.

While there are many people descending from Damascus Gate, the numbers are not what we used to see in previous years, especially pre-COVID. Ultimately, it feels like a somber holiday. There are no festive decorations or light chains turned on at dusk, neither at Damascus Gate nor in the streets of the Old City.

We walked along Al-Wad St. and continued straight (without turning left by the Austrian Hospice). Shortly after the junction, we saw a group of Christian pilgrims with a guide, carrying a large cross, following the path of Jesus on the Via Dolorosa.

There is a heavy presence of police and Border Police officers, but they stand quietly, mostly behind barriers. We witnessed almost no confrontations with the public. We continued on Al-Wad St. until we reached a point where the Border Police stopped us. From here, we were permitted to continue straight toward the Western Wall or turn right toward the Jaffa Gate exit, but were not allowed to turn left with the crowd entering the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa).

We retraced our steps to the Austrian Hospice and turned toward Lions’ Gate. On the way, we passed Bab al-Huta, an entrance gate to the Temple Mount where we used to stand in previous years. Entry was not permitted from here this time. We continued to Lions’ Gate, where many people enter and immediately turn right to access the Al-Aqsa compound.

Outside Lions’ Gate, many people were on their way to prayer. We witnessed a minor confrontation between police and a young man; the cause was unclear. We asked someone standing nearby with a donation box for a Jam’iyah (charity, as giving alms is a Ramadan custom), but he didn’t know what happened. However, we were impressed that the young man, wearing a white Muslim prayer cap, stood his ground before the officers and insisted on his right to go to prayer without interference.

Stalls line the Eastern Wall and the opposite side as well, selling everything.

We continued along the Eastern Wall and turned left opposite the Rockefeller Museum, ascending along the wall. By this stage, the prayer had likely begun, and very few people remained outside the Old City. More stalls were set up near Flowers Gate (Herod’s Gate).

We continued up the path along the wall and completed our circuit back at Damascus Gate. Here, more and more stalls were being added in anticipation of the end of prayers. More food stalls and gazebos were being erected, and the activity was bustling. We reunited with Avital and Ruthie, who were joined by Claire Oren. We sat for a while and watched until people began returning from prayer around 1:00 PM, at which point we left.

On the way back, we stopped at a falafel stall across the road from Damascus Gate. More and more people were streaming toward the Light Rail station, traveling mostly northward.