On the fourth day of Ramadan, 2023; Israeli forces and radicals stormed the area around the holy al-Aqsa mosque, forcing Muslim worshipers to flee the premises.
According to the Islamic Waqf authority, on Sunday, Israeli settlers guarded by police broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem. This occurred shortly after police raided the holy site and expelled Muslim worshippers who were staying there for worship.
Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli police entered the compound late on Saturday and forcibly removed hundreds of Muslim worshippers and arrested at least two of them.
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In addition to increasing restrictions on worshippers’ access to the mosque, Israeli forces were stationed inside the compound and at its gates on Sunday morning to prevent the incursions of the settlers.
Jordan’s Waqf manages the compound in accordance with a joint agreement, while Israel controls access to the holy site in the name of security.
Non-Muslims are permitted to visit the location at specific times, but they are not permitted to pray there, according to a long-standing rule.
A growing number of Jews, the majority of whom are Israeli nationalists, have secretly prayed at the compound in recent years. This has been condemned by Palestinians and Western governments, who have warned that such actions put the fragile arrangement at Jerusalem’s holy sites in danger.
This was the most recent incident in a series of attacks by settler terrorists on Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank.
In the middle of Saturday night, Israeli settlers in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah in the central West Bank, started a fire on a house owned by a Palestinian.
Witnesses told WAFA that four Israeli settlers threw incendiary bottles into the house, causing the owner, Ahmad Maher Awashreh, 35, and his family—including children—to be rescued alive.
That very night, radical Israeli pioneers pelted stones at Palestinian vehicles making harm some of them close to the town of Deir Sharaf, toward the west of Nablus and hindered an intersection in the northern Jordan Valley.
In the West Bank, Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property has become a norm, but Israeli authorities rarely bring criminal charges.
In violation of international law and established norms prohibiting the relocation of the civil population of the occupying power to the land of the occupied, over 650,000 Israeli settlers are illegally occupying portions of the West Bank.
During Ramadan, numerous Palestinians have urged Muslims to break their fast in the al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards and pray there.
In the same context, nine members of the Security Council urged a de-escalation of tensions between Israel and Palestine and criticized Israel’s settlement activities in Palestinian territories.
“All sides to refrain from unilateral steps that escalate tensions and to refrain from provocative actions and messages at this sensitive time,” the parties said, noting that the religious holidays of Ramadan, Passover, and Easter are all occurring at the same time this season.
In light of the frequent settlers’ raids, one of their objectives is to increase the number of Palestinians in the mosque during the holy month to reaffirm their claim to the al-Aqsa Mosque and the city of Al-Quds.
During previous Ramadans, Israeli forces and Palestinians engaged in fighting, particularly in the vicinity of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
