By Ali Sawafta and Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM, March 29 (Reuters) - Israeli police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from marking Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre "for the first time in centuries," the Patriarchate said, with police citing security concerns linked to the Iran war.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Friar Francesco Ielpo were stopped by police while walking to the church, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.
"As a result, and for the first time in centuries, the Heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre," it said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: "There was no malicious intent whatsoever, only concern for his (Pizzaballa's) safety and that of his party."
He said preparations were in place to allow church leaders to worship at the church in the coming days.
Israeli police said all holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City – including those sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews – had been closed to worshippers since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, particularly locations without bomb shelters.
Police said they had rejected a request from the Patriarchate for a Palm Sunday exemption.
"The Old City and the holy sites constitute a complex area that does not allow access for large emergency and rescue vehicles, which significantly challenges response capabilities and poses a real risk to human life in the event of a mass casualty incident," police said.
RESTRICTIONS AFFECT EASTER, RAMADAN, PASSOVER
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the most important week in the Christian calendar, leading to Easter. The Old City would typically be busy, with Roman Catholics passing through the massive wooden doors of the Holy Sepulchre.
This year, Christians, Muslims and Jews have been unable to observe Easter, Ramadan or Passover as usual due to police restrictions. Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque was largely empty during Ramadan, and few worshippers have come to Judaism's Western Wall as Passover approaches on Wednesday.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticised the police action and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on social media that he would summon Israel's ambassador over the incident.
France's President Emmanuel Macron condemned the Israeli police's decision, which he said "adds to the worrying increase in violations of the status of the Holy Places in Jerusalem."
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said denying the Patriarch's entry to the church on Palm Sunday was "difficult to understand or justify."
The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment. On Sunday, Pope Leo said that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have "hands full of blood", in unusually forceful remarks as the Iran war entered its second month.
INCONSISTENT ENFORCEMENT, RESIDENTS SAY
On March 16, shrapnel from ballistic missiles fired by Iran and debris from Israeli interceptors that shot them down fell by the church and the nearby hilltop plateau known to Muslims as Al-Aqsa compound and to Jews as Temple Mount.
Residents of the Old City and religious officials said police restrictions on worship had not been implemented consistently.
They noted that Muslim Waqf preachers were able to access Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, and that cleaners were permitted ahead of Passover to remove prayer notes from the Western Wall, an annual ritual.
On Sunday, Franciscan friars and worshippers were also allowed into another Old City shrine, a short walk through the Old City's narrow alleyways from the Holy Sepulchre, to mark Palm Sunday. A Reuters photograph showed around a dozen people bowing their heads in prayer and carrying palm fronds.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Ali Sawafta in Jerusalem; Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv, Joshua McElwee in Vatican City, Giulio Piovaccari in Milan and Mathieu Rosemain in Paris; Writing by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Ros Russell)
