102 settlers stormed the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday morning, via the Moroccan Gate, with intensive presence of Israeli police.
According to Jerusalemite sources, the settlers stormed the courtyard in groups, and in a provocative way.
The source added, according to Al Ray, that a group of students and devotees resisted them.
Al-Aqsa mosque is continuously stormed by armed settlers amid restrictions imposed on prayers.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is also venerated as Judaism’s most holy place. Disputes surrounding visitation to the site have historically flared tensions in the occupied Palestinian territory.
In 2003, the Israeli government unilaterally decided — despite the objections of the Islamic Endowments Department — to allow non-Muslim visitors into the complex.
Since then, under increasingly right-wing Israeli governments, extremist Jewish settlers have been allowed into the site in ever greater numbers — usually protected by Israeli security forces — while Palestinian access to the site has become increasingly restricted.
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