A group of extremist Israeli settlers, led by American-Israeli rabbi Yehuda Glick, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound from Al-Magharibah gate, early Monday, according to Al Ray.
A statement by the Jerusalem Waqf Department said that the rabbi and the settlers broke into the compound under tight protection of Israeli occupation forces.
Israeli police, stationed at the mosque’s main gates, imposed tight measures on Palestinian women and youth and seized their IDs before entering Al-Aqsa.
It is noteworthy that Al-Aqsa Mosque witnesses, almost daily, occurrences of incursions and violations by Israeli settlers and extremists, amid tight restrictions imposed on the entry of Palestinian worshipers.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and also venerated as Judaism’s most holy place, alleged to be the original site of Solomon’s Temple. 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.
Christians outside of the Levant remain divided on the issue, as biblical end times prophecy states: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” ~Revelation 21:22
However, settler attacks on Christian holy sites have been progressive, in recent years, and are now on the increase, as well.
Glick was shot and injured at a rally in Jerusalem, in October of 2014.
Archive IMEMC story: 2015: A Dangerous Escalation at Al-Aqsa Mosque
