Palestinians pray for Arafat
AFP, Jerusalem
Some 100,000 Palestinians yesterday prayed at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque complex for their stricken leader Yasser Arafat, marking the fourth Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Under the watchful eye of a reinforced Israeli police force, the faithful dispersed without incident through the tiny winding streets of Jerusalem's Old City, an AFP photographer reported. More than 100,000 Muslims usually pray at the site, the third holiest in Islam, every Friday during Ramadan. The 75-year-old Arafat remained in a coma in a French military hospital on Friday, with Palestinian officials denying reports from medical sources that he was brain dead. Late Thursday, small groups of ultra-nationalist Israeli settlers had celebrated the news of Arafat's grave condition in the streets of Jerusalem.
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