Settlers breach Al-Aqsa Mosque; Israeli occupation prevents Palestinians from praying
More than 1,300 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound since Thursday morning, including the so-called extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in what they refer to as the “anniversary of the destruction of the Temple,” under the protection of occupation police who have allowed the number of individuals in each group during the raids to increase to approximately 150 settlers.
The Jerusalem Municipality stated in a press release that “occupation forces continue to impose strict measures at the entrances to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the vicinity of the Old City, preventing worshippers from entering.” It noted that a limited number of worshippers managed to enter the mosque and perform the Fajr prayer before occupation forces assaulted them and several citizens with beatings.
The municipality added that occupation forces are heavily deployed across the various courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, clarifying that settlers continued to perform Talmudic rituals during their incursions, including the so-called “prostration on the ground” in the eastern part of the mosque and chanting loudly.
It further explained that so-called “extremist Temple groups” continue to mobilize their supporters with the aim of reaching a total of 5,000 settlers during today’s raids.
The Presidency, in a press release issued today and reported by the Palestinian News and Information Agency (Wafa), affirmed that “what is happening at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound represents a dangerous escalation that falls within the framework of a systematic policy aimed at imposing new facts on the ground, and attempts to divide it temporally and spatially.”
It stressed that “the Noble Al-Aqsa Mosque, in its entirety covering 144 dunams, is a place of worship exclusively for Muslims, and that there is no sovereignty for the Israeli occupation over the city of Jerusalem and its holy sites.”
Israel has controlled the Al-Aqsa Mosque and East Jerusalem since the June 1967 war, and since then, the city and the mosque have been under direct Israeli military and security control.
