Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied eastern al-Quds while being protected by the regime’s forces. This occurred on the Jews’ New Year celebration, Rosh Hashanah.
Palestine’s official Wafa news agency quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday through the Moroccan Gate on the west side of the compound, which has been under the control of the Israeli regime since the occupation of east al-Quds and the West Bank began in 1967.
The Israeli settlers then took a provocative tour of the compound before exiting through the chain gate.
Israeli right-wing groups have called for storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to increase the Jewish presence there as Jews celebrated Rosh Hashanah from Monday to Wednesday.
The far-right groups are openly calling for the al-Aqsa Mosque to be converted into a Jewish place of worship and for the Islamic shrines to be demolished in order to build a Jewish temple there.
Israeli settlers regularly storm the site of al-Aqsa, which they call the Temple Mount, during religious holidays. In July, they broke into the compound in advance of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. Israeli forces also attacked Muslim worshipers, firing tear gas canisters at them and arresting several of them.
Back in May, repeated violence against Palestinian worshipers at the al-Aqsa mosque led to an 11-day war between Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli regime, during which the regime killed at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children.
