Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, sits within the Church of All Nations on the day of a prayer service to mark Palm Sunday, following the cancellation of the normal Palm Sunday procession from the Mount of Olives, amid restrictions on gathering in massive teams and the U.S.-Israeli battle with Iran, in Jerusalem, March 29, 2026.
| Picture Credit score: Reuters
Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from marking Palm Sunday on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre “for the primary time in centuries,” the Patriarchate mentioned, with police citing safety issues linked to the Iran conflict.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Friar Francesco Ielpo had been stopped by police whereas strolling to the church, constructed on the location the place Christians consider Jesus was crucified and rose from the lifeless, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem mentioned.
Iran-Israel conflict updates on March 29, 2026
“Consequently, and for the primary time in centuries, the Heads of the Church had been prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” it mentioned in an announcement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned in an announcement: “There was no malicious intent by any means, solely concern for his [Pizzaballa’s] security and that of his get together.” He mentioned preparations had been in place to permit church leaders to worship on the church within the coming days.
Israeli police mentioned all holy websites in Jerusalem’s Previous Metropolis –together with these sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews – had been closed to worshippers because the begin of the U.S.-Israeli conflict on Iran, notably areas with out bomb shelters.
Police mentioned they’d rejected a request from the Patriarchate for a Palm Sunday exemption. “The Previous Metropolis and the holy websites represent a posh space that doesn’t enable entry for big emergency and rescue automobiles, which considerably challenges response capabilities and poses an actual threat to human life within the occasion of a mass casualty incident,” police mentioned.
Restrictions have an effect on Easter, Ramadan, Passover
Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week, an important week in the Christian calendar, resulting in Easter. The Previous Metropolis would usually be busy, with Roman Catholics passing by the large picket doorways of the Holy Sepulchre. This yr, Christians, Muslims and Jews have been unable to watch Easter, Ramadan or Passover as regular attributable to police restrictions. Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque was largely empty throughout Ramadan, and few worshippers have come to Judaism’s Western Wall as Passover approaches on Wednesday (March 25, 2026).
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticised the police motion and International Minister Antonio Tajani mentioned on social media that he would summon Israel’s ambassador over the incident. France’s President Emmanuel Macron condemned the Israeli police’s determination, which he mentioned “provides to the worrying improve in violations of the standing of the Holy Locations in Jerusalem.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee mentioned denying the Patriarch’s entry to the church on Palm Sunday was “obscure or justify.”
The Vatican didn’t reply to a request for remark. On Sunday (March 29, 2026), Pope Leo mentioned that God rejects the prayers of leaders who begin wars and have “palms filled with blood”, in unusually forceful remarks because the Iran conflict entered its second month.
Inconsistent enforcement, residents say
On March 16, shrapnel from ballistic missiles fired by Iran and particles from Israeli interceptors that shot them down fell by the church and the close by hilltop plateau identified to Muslims as Al-Aqsa compound and to Jews as Temple Mount. Residents of the Previous Metropolis and non secular officers mentioned police restrictions on worship had not been carried out persistently.
They famous that Muslim Waqf preachers had been in a position to entry Al-Aqsa Mosque throughout Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, and that cleaners had been permitted forward of Passover to take away prayer notes from the Western Wall, an annual ritual.
On Sunday (March 29, 2026), Franciscan friars and worshippers had been additionally allowed into one other Previous Metropolis shrine, a brief stroll by the Previous Metropolis’s slim alleyways from the Holy Sepulchre, to mark Palm Sunday. A Reuters {photograph} confirmed round a dozen folks bowing their heads in prayer and carrying palm fronds.
Revealed – March 29, 2026 10:13 pm IST