Israeli forces stormed into Al Aqsa Mosque, on Monday morning, and began to photograph the mosque’s landmarks and take measurements without mentioning any reasons for it.
Later this morning, groups of Israeli settlers renewed the provocative incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque through the Moroccan Gate, carried out tours inside the mosque, under high security reinforcement, until they left the mosque.
In the same context, Israeli occupation authorities decided, on Sunday, to temporarily expel five guards from Al-Aqsa Mosque for periods ranging from four to six months.
According to Al Ray, the six-month deportation decision included guards Fadi Alian, Louai Abu Saad, Ahmed Abu Alia and a member of the Jerusalem district Awad Salaymeh.
The occupation decided to expel Yahya Shehadeh and Salman Abu Miyaleh, for 4 months, from the mosque.
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 have been publicly calling its followers to participate in wide scale mass raids on the holy site.
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