Al-Aqsa mosque stormed by Israeli settlers

Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem under police protection, according to a report by the Middle East Eye via Al Jazeera on October 16th.

The report cited the Islamic Endowments Department, which said that at least 93 settlers entered the mosque under the protection of the Israeli police; the settlers performed Talmudic rituals and prayers while the police blocked Muslim worshippers from entering the mosque.

Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is located in occupied Jerusalem, is widely recognised as an exclusively Islamic place where only Muslims are permitted to worship.

The compound has increasingly come under attack from Israeli settlers, which has been condemned by the Ir Amim Association, an Israeli monitor, which expressed concerns that “under the guise of religious Jewish connection, Israel is steadily taking control of the holy site.”

The monitor accused the Israeli government of exploiting Jewish holidays to boost Jewish presence in the area, including on “Jerusalem Day”, which celebrates Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank. What’s more, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video of him walking through a tunnel underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The extremist “Temple Groups” petitioned for unrestricted access to Al-Aqsa on May 26th, which is Jerusalem Day.

It was reported on April 16th that 1,220 Israeli settlers stormed the mosque and the Jerusalem governor estimated that 13,064 illegal settlers had stormed the mosque in the first quarter of this year.

Israel first permitted Jewish access to Al-Aqsa in 2003, with the site being the the location of the Temple Mount.

Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, led 1,300 Israelis on an incursion into the mosque on October 8th, the second day of Sukkot, a Jewish festival which celebrates harvest and unity.

Ben-Gvir said on X: “We are the owners of the house on the Temple Mount. I only pray that our Prime Minister will allow a full victory in Gaza as well – to destroy Hamas, God willing, to return the hostages, and we will achieve an absolute victory.”

Al-Aqsa Mosque is not the only religious site to come under threat by Israel, as it was reported on October 9th that the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, located in the occupied West Bank, was closed to Muslim worshippers ahead of Sukkot celebrations.

The Ibrahimi Mosque was the site of a massacre in 1994 by an American-Israeli settler terrorist named Baruch Goldstein.

Middle East Eye via Al Jazeera, Maghrebi.org