Israeli settlers storm Al-aqsa Mosque
Settlers’ incursions were carried out under the protection of police, who tightened military measures
Jerusalem - More than 500 illegal Israeli settlers forced their way into the flashpoint of AlAqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday to celebrate the Jewish Passover holiday.
“More than 500 settlers stormed Al-aqsa from the Mugharbah Gate and carried out provocative rounds and performed Talmudic rituals in its courtyards,” the Islamic Endowments Authority in Jerusalem said in a statement.
The authority added that the settlers’ incursions were carried out under the protection of police, who tightened military measures at the gates of the Old City and Al-aqsa Mosque.
Settler incursions into the AlAqsa Mosque are expected to continue until afternoon prayers on Sunday, it added.
Since the first day of Passover, which began on Monday evening and lasts a week, hundreds of illegal settlers have been storming the Al-aqsa Mosque complex daily under tight police measures, causing severe tensions in various parts of Jerusalem’s Old City.
On Thursday, nearly 1,700 illegal Israeli settlers forced their way into the Al-aqsa Mosque complex in groups to celebrate Passover, the Islamic Endowments Authority in Jerusalem had said.
Right-wing Israeli extremist groups have previously called for widespread incursions into the mosque on the occasion of Passover.
Palestinians accuse Israel of taking rapid measures to Judaise Jerusalem, including the Al-aqsa
Mosque, and erase its Arab and Islamic identity.
Passover, which commemorates the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt during the time of Prophet Moses, is considered one of the most important holidays on the Jewish religious calendar.
Since 2003, Israel has allowed illegal settlers into the flashpoint compound on an almost daily basis with the exception of Fri
days and Saturdays.
Al-aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the ‘Temple Mount’, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community.
Attack on farmers in West Bank
Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlers launched attacks targeting Palestinian farmers and residential areas in the West Bank on Saturday. “The settler attacks occurred in the Jordan Valley (north), Hebron, and Bethlehem (south),” the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) and the Palestine News Agency Wafa reported.
The commission said in a statement that illegal settlers ‘raided the homes and tents of citizens in the Jordan Valley area and destroyed their belongings, and attacked shepherds in the area’. It added that the attack affected ‘the residence of citizen Fuad Draghmeh in the Ein AlHilweh community in the northern Jordan Valley, and the tent of citizen Mohammed Abu Mta’awe in Al-sakout area’.
In the southern West Bank, a witness told Anadolu that armed settlers attacked several Palestinian farmers inside their fields in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, to force them to leave.
He added that dozens of them attacked Palestinians in the Banias area northeast of the town, threatening them with death if they did not leave the area. Later, the Israeli army intervened to demand that the farmers leave their lands on the pretext that it could not protect them from the illegal settlers.
In Bethlehem as well, Wafa reported that ‘a group of settlers attacked farmers after they had finished harvesting quantities of wheat in the lands of Wadi alAbyad in the wilderness of Tuqu (east of Bethlehem) and seized them (wheat) by force of arms’.
More than 500 settlers stormed Al-aqsa from the Mugharbah Gate and carried out provocative rounds and performed Talmudic rituals in its courtyards ISLAMIC ENDOWMENTS AUTHORITY