Settler incursions into Al-Aqsa did not stop throughout the aggression on Gaza, while Jerusalemites are prevented from praying there (Al-Jazeera)

Since the seventh of last October, Al-Aqsa Mosque has become an arena for emptying the settlers' resentment from the battle of the Al-Aqsa flood, a theater for glorifying their dead and prisoners, and a smooth transition station between holy sites in occupied Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, where supporters of the Temple groups wore their military uniforms, and their voices were raised to speed up the demolition of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the establishment of the alleged Temple.

Al Jazeera Net monitored the behavior of members of the most prominent temple groups in Al-Aqsa Mosque, through what they published on their official accounts, amid the absence of field journalists and Al-Aqsa guards for violations carried out by settlers during their storming.

The Temple groups have repeatedly expressed their annoyance at calling the battle "Al-Aqsa Flood", one of their activists, former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin, said in his recent storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque: "They called the battle "Al-Aqsa Flood", and we should call it "the Temple Battle" and not "Iron Sword", the core of the battle is this place, we do not have more time, it is over, we must build the Temple."

An Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip carries a flag with a picture of the alleged structure (IDF)

Photos from Gaza

In response, the groups boasted of photos sent by the occupation soldiers from inside the Gaza Strip, claiming the centrality of the so-called Temple in what the occupation called the "Battle of Iron Swords", publishing pictures of soldiers wearing helmets with the image of the Temple, and others raising a flag with the image of the Temple on top of a tank, or placing its logo on their military uniforms.

Extremist Arnon Segal captioned the latest photo: "A new symbol in the IDF uniform, they have Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, and we have the trustees of the Temple Mount."

The Trustees of the Temple Mount is a Zionist movement founded in 1967 as the nucleus of the Temple groups, whose supporters caused the first Al-Aqsa massacre in 1990.

Among the photos posted by the groups was a soldier holding up the victory badge in front of a mural of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in a Jabalia school in the northern Gaza Strip, after defacing it and writing phrases from the Jewish "Shamma" prayer, the words "The people of Israel are alive," and "Christ now," and a call for the so-called temple to be built as quickly as possible.

Temple groups have manipulated some images from Gaza, such as an image of Israeli tanks with a model of the alleged Temple incorporated in front of them and the label "Soon on the Temple Mount" in reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

They also combined a picture of the Dome of the Rock behind a photo of soldiers raising the Israeli flag on a dome model after they destroyed the Palestinian Legislative Council headquarters in Gaza in early November.

A soldier raises the victory badge after defacing a mural of the Dome of the Rock in Gaza and another raises the words "The Temple Mount is in our hands" (social media)

Military uniforms and slogans

The soldiers also provided the groups with a photo of a beach they said was in Gaza, after they wrote on it the phrase "The Temple Mount in our hands," a phrase that one of the soldiers wrote on a piece of paper and carried with a smile from inside Gaza, after he took another photo inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in his military uniform, only to find that he was one of the activists of the "Bedino" group, the most prominent Temple group.

He was not the only soldier who combined his storming of Al-Aqsa with his aggression on Gaza, as the spokesman for the Union of Temple Organizations, Assaf Farid, joined the ranks of the army since the eighth of October, and continued to document his storming of Al-Aqsa in his military uniform, before going to or returning from Gaza. Dozens of others came to "be blessed," they say, in light of the closure of the mosque to Jerusalemites themselves.

Last November, Temple Mount groups mourned two of their activists after they were shot dead by Palestinian resistance in the northern Gaza Strip.

One of the most prominent intruders, Noam Friedman, who tried to slaughter a goat at Al-Aqsa 4 times, did not hide his pride in front of the camera in Al-Aqsa with his five sons who serve in the occupation army, including one in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque in uniform (Israeli press)

Calls and incitement

In addition to storming Al-Aqsa in military uniform, Israeli police inside the mosque have worn a slogan since October 7 that read, "Iron swords, we fight for the house."

He also documented one of the intruders wearing a T-shirt painted with a map of Palestine and the occupied Golan with the flag of the occupying power on it, and wrote next to it, "Our enemy understood that whoever controls the Temple Mount controls the whole land."

Former MK Yehuda Glick stormed the mosque a few days ago wearing a scarf that read, "The people of Israel are alive."

While the occupation intimidated the imams and preachers of Jerusalem and prevented them from talking about the Gaza Strip in Friday sermons, the settlers prayed publicly inside Al-Aqsa Mosque and prayed for their dead and prisoners, glorified them with speeches near the Gate of Mercy at times, and spoke by phone with some soldiers to support them at other times, in addition to the families of the dead and prisoners storming Al-Aqsa Mosque and praying for their children organized by the Temple groups.

The Temple groups clearly stated their goal with sentences addressed to their supporters such as "Understand: When Hamas attacks us, target the Temple Mount," "The Temple Mount must be closed until the kidnappers return," and "When Israel is in trouble, go up to the Temple Mount."

She also commented on speeches by resistance leaders that showed the centrality of Al-Aqsa, saying, "Listen to them, the Temple Mount is the goal, we must close it to them."

Extremist Rabbi Yehuda Glick storms Al-Aqsa wearing a scarf that reads: The people of Israel are alive (social media)

Achieving sovereignty

I asked Al Jazeera Net specialist in the affairs of Al-Aqsa Mosque and professor of studies of Jerusalem Abdullah Maarouf, about his interpretation of the behavior of the Temple groups in Al-Aqsa since the seventh of last October, he said that "these groups are a cornerstone of the current Netanyahu government, where you see that the current war is its war, and the victory of the government means its ability to build the temple and accelerate salvation and the coming of the Messiah."

"The Netanyahu government wants to prove by facilitating the storming of settlers in their military uniforms and restricting the entry of worshipers that it is the one who controls Al-Aqsa, in response to the naming of the battle as the flood of Al-Aqsa, in a desire to prove its sovereignty and withdraw the image of victory from the resistance," he added.

Maarouf explained that the temple groups are trying to associate their name with the temple and turn the conflict into a religious conflict to rally the support of extremist Jewish and Christian groups around the world who believe in the inevitability of building the temple for the coming of the Messiah.

"The absence of a reaction to these violations in al-Aqsa is a harbinger of the situation reaching unfortunate stages, because these groups consider the absence of reaction as divine signals of the need for progress and greater gains," he said.

The Jerusalem expert did not rule out unprecedented attacks "that can be avoided by giving this issue its true scale of action and appropriate reaction."

Source : Al Jazeera