(IsraelNN.com) Israel’s capital city has purchased 87 shells for a special cannon used to signal the start and end of the daily fasts, as well as prayer times, that accompany the Muslim month. The shells cost 6,787 shekels.

Mayor Uri Lupolianski will fire the cannon on Monday, September 25th at a Muslim cemetery near Jerusalem’s Old City. Subsequently, the cannon will be fired three times a day for the remainder of Ramadan.

All Muslim municipal workers will finish work two hours early without a decrease in pay.

The municipality will also adorn the Old City’s gates with lights in honor of the holiday and increase sanitation activities around the area, which will see heavier traffic than usual to the mosques on the Temple Mount.

Sanitary lamb-slaughtering facilities for use during the three-day Eid el Fitr celebration at the end of the month will be provided, by the city's arrangement, at the Tarot Industrial Zone.

The city’s welfare department will be distributing holiday gifts to needy Muslim families ahead of the holiday.

Other Preparations
The gay pride parade will take place after the end of Ramadan, presumably so as not to attract the heightened Islamic wrath and violence that often accompany Ramadan.

Police are preparing to raise the level of alert across the country upon the start of Ramadan this weekend.