Tens of thousands of Muslims prayed at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, with Israeli troops restricting entry of worshippers from the West Bank to those over the age of 45.

Israel will permit Yasser Arafat to be buried in the Gaza Strip, but not in Jerusalem, an Israeli Cabinet minister said today, as the Palestinian leader lay gravely ill in a Paris hospital.

Three Palestinians were killed and 20 other people wounded by Israeli gunfire when tanks and armoured vehicles entered the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border today, hospital officials said.