AP — Jerusalem’s major holy sites are shuttered and many families are dejected and exhausted ahead of Passover and Easter as the Iran war enters its fifth week.

The mood stands in stark contrast to a usual spring, when longer days herald a period of family gatherings and an influx of tourists for the major Jewish and Christian holidays.

Metal shutters are drawn on nearly all stores in the Old City, home to key holy sites, and only scattered footsteps echo on deserted stone alleyways. Vast plazas are missing the typical throngs of faithful and tourists.

Jerusalem has largely escaped past wars, with Israel’s enemies appearing to be hesitant to launch missiles near the city’s Muslim holy sites. But since Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran on February 28, Jerusalem has repeatedly come under fire.

Earlier this month, an intercepted Iranian missile sprayed shrapnel on the rooftop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, just steps from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the most important sites in Christianity.

The church, built on what is revered by many Christians as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection, remains closed under IDF Home Front Command guidelines prohibiting gatherings of more than 50 people.

Missile debris also hit a road leading to the Western Wall.

From his office overlooking the plaza at the holy site, now also closed to worshipers, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, whose purview encompasses the Western Wall and other Jewish holy sites in Israel, lamented the empty plaza.

“The heart aches greatly, it bleeds, seeing the Western Wall as it looks now,” he said.

The massive priestly blessing for Passover, which usually draws tens of thousands, will take place with just 50 worshipers, Rabinovitch said.

That’s the maximum allowed to pray together in the enclosed area by the Western Wall under wartime safety guidelines — reminiscent of the restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Easter celebrations are canceled

The Latin Patriarchate has canceled a procession on Sunday commemorating Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the Christian celebration known as Palm Sunday.

Any other year, tens of thousands of Christians from around the world would walk down the narrow, hilly streets toward the Old City, waving palm fronds and singing.

Rami Asakrieh, the parish priest for Jerusalem’s Catholics, said the community will sorely miss the procession, a deeply emotional and spiritual part of the holiday. But the cancellation is also a reminder that faith comes internally from the heart, not from external actions, he added.

“We are celebrating resurrection, resurrection is from death and winning the pain and the war,” he said. “It will not come by having fear, but by having faith.”

A local Catholic high school, empty of students as classes have been canceled, was recently hit by debris from an Iranian missile interception, Asakrieh said.

A Franciscan priest, Asakrieh is still celebrating Mass for up to 50 parishioners at the Saint Savoir monastery’s cavernous marble hall, near the centuries-old complex’s music school, the Magnificat Institute. The school was built in what was once the convent’s basement, which has been approved by the Israeli military as a suitable shelter.

Jerusalem’s smaller synagogues, mosques and churches are also open to groups of up to 50 people — if they are located close to a shelter or a safe space.

‘It’s like there was no Ramadan for us’

Next to the Western Wall is the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site, which has also stood empty since the war started, canceling prayers during most of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended in mid-March.

Fayez Dakkak, a third-generation Muslim storeowner in the Old City whose shop has catered to Christian pilgrims since 1942, said he was heartbroken over Al-Aqsa’s closure during the Islamic holy month.

“It’s like there was no Ramadan for us,” Dakkak said. He added that he prayed several times at a local mosque but that it can’t compare to being able to pray at Al-Aqsa.

Police orders have closed his shop, along with all non-food stores in the Old City — also part of the safety guidelines during the war.

Dakkak said that for years now, as the numbers of pilgrims and tourists plummeted, he’s barely been able to make ends meet. Still, it would have been nice to open his shop for some semblance of routine and just chat with other storeowners.

Cleaning for Passover, running for the shelter

Israelis have grown weary after nearly a month of daily sirens, 16 civilian deaths and dozens of people seriously injured.

For Seder, Jewish families are planning smaller, stripped-down ceremonial Passover dinners that commemorate the Jewish exodus from Egypt — a far cry from times when large family gatherings often welcomed relatives from abroad.

Ben Gurion Airport has been operating on a severely limited basis throughout the war. Many point out the irony that ahead of Passover, Israelis are fleeing the country through the land border crossing with Egypt to the Sinai desert, while the holiday commemorates the story of ancient Israelites leaving Egypt via Sinai to Israel.

Observant Jewish families are frantically cleaning for Passover to remove traces of leavening, which requires “turning the house upside-down in between running for the shelter,” said Jamie Geller, a cookbook author who works in Jerusalem’s Old City.

From her office at Aish, a Jewish educational institute with headquarters next to the Western Wall plaza, Geller can see where shrapnel dented and smashed rooftops, roads and a parking lot in the area.

“It’s shocking,” she said. “The Old City has always been a bit off limits for international terror and war, but not this time.”

Are you relying on The Times of Israel for accurate and timely coverage of the Iran war right now? If so, please join The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6/month, you will:

Support our independent journalists who are working around the clock under difficult conditions to cover this conflict;

Read ToI with a clear, ads-free experience on our site, apps and emails; and

Gain access to exclusive content shared only with the ToI Community, including weekly letters from founding editor David Horovitz.

We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.

You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.

Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically during this ongoing conflict.

So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you'll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.

Thank you,David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel

1 IDF says almost done targeting ‘critical’ Iranian military sites as waves of strikes hit Tehran

2 Several hurt as Iranian missile hits Jerusalem-area town; Hezbollah continues to strike north

3 CNN crew say troops assaulted them, detained them, then trumpeted far-right ideology

4 21 arrested in Tel Aviv, Haifa during mounting protests against Iran war

5 IDF kills Hezbollah-linked journalist, says he was part of elite Radwan Force

6 2 soldiers seriously hurt in Lebanon clashes as Hezbollah rockets and drones pound north

7 Pakistan’s PM speaks with Iranian president ahead of 4-nation Islamabad peace talks

8 In Israel’s shelters, an ‘underground’ entertainment scene is born under missile fire

Old City of Jerusalem

2026 US-Israel war with Iran

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

© The Times of Israel