Extremist Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli special forces and rapid intervention troops, continued on Wednesday morning with ritual intrusions into the courtyards of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, via the Moroccan gate.
Jerusalemite sources reported, according to Al Ray, that Israeli police opened the gate at 7:30 am, in preparation for the settlers’ arrival,
The sources added that the settlers carried out provocative tours in the mosque’s courtyards and received discussions on the so-called “Temple Mount”.
They added that Muslims worshipers and students who were present at the mosque defended it with chanting and Takbeer (“Allahu Akhbar: God is Greatest!”).
Al-Aqsa mosque is now confronted on a daily basis, by extremist Israeli settlers who perform Talmudic rituals and desecrate the sanctity of the holy site.
Israel seeks, through such measures, to divide the temporal and spatial division of the mosque and to further Judaize the occupied city of Jerusalem.
It 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.
The number of Israeli settlers storming the holy site has risen since US president Donald Trump’s declaration of occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Members of the so-called “Temple Mount” movement are publicly calling its followers to participate in wide scale mass raids on the holy site.
