The latest provocative act against the holy Palestinian site involved Israeli settlers breaking into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound while being protected by Israeli forces.
According to the official news agency of Palestine, WAFA, a large group of Israeli settlers broke into the compound on Tuesday through the Moroccan Gate while being escorted by military personnel, performing provocative rituals and Talmudic prayers near the Bab al-Rahma (Gate of Mercy or Golden Gate) area.
The settlers were given lectures about the purported Jewish temple at the revered Muslim site, according to a statement from the Islamic Endowment Department in al-Quds.
Before allowing settler groups to storm the al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli forces had already been stationed there.
In the meantime, the soldiers barred Palestinian worshipers from the mosque.
Hardline Israeli officials and settlers frequently storm the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied city, angering Palestinians. Such large-scale intrusions almost always occur in al-Quds at the command of temple organizations supported by Tel Aviv and under the supervision of the Israeli police.
Jewish visitors are welcome to al-Aqsa, but non-Muslim worship is not permitted due to a long-standing agreement between Jordan, the guardian of the Islamic and Christian sites in al-Quds, and Israel after Israel occupied East al-Quds in 1967.
Back in October 2021, an Israeli court upheld a ban on Jewish prayers inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, overturning a lower court’s decision that had angered many Palestinians and Muslims worldwide. Aryeh Romanov, the district court judge in al-Quds, affirmed on October 8 that only Muslims are allowed to pray there and that Jews are not allowed to conduct open worship there.
The Israeli government’s forces killed at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children, during an 11-day war in Gaza in May 2021 that was sparked by repeated acts of violence against Palestinian worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque.
Separately, on Tuesday, Israeli military bulldozers demolished a building owned by a Palestinian business in Deir Ballut, a town situated 25 miles (41 kilometers) southwest of Nablus.
According to reliable sources who spoke to WAFA, a 200 square meter building in the town that belonged to Ahmad Abdullah, a local resident, was destroyed by bulldozers.
On July 29, the UN reported that Israeli military forces and authorities had destroyed 54 Palestinian-owned buildings in East al-Quds, the largest region of the occupied West Bank, during the previous month. The UN cited the absence of Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the demolitions that took place between July 5 and 24 resulted in the displacement of 66 Palestinians, including 34 children, and more than 795 other people’s means of subsistence.
