Groups of extremist settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque this morning, Tuesday, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, for the third consecutive day, while dozens of Jews performed religious rituals inside the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron.
The Palestinian government and the resistance factions condemned the Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Arab and Islamic countries condemned the practices of the occupation forces in it.
The UN Security Council will hold a closed consultation session on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Jerusalem.
The continued storming of settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque until the moment pic.twitter.com/bohPfDlVTd
— AlQastal Al Qastal (@AlQastalps) April 19, 2022
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Jerusalem, Najwan Samri, said that the occupation forces took proactive steps, as they prevented those under the age of forty from performing the dawn prayer in Al-Aqsa, and until this moment they prevent Palestinian youths from entering the mosque from all its doors.
She added that the occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque half an hour before the opening of the Mughrabi Gate for the settlers' incursions, and evacuated all the mosque's courtyards of worshipers to secure the path of the settlers' incursions.
On the other hand, a group of Almoravids stayed inside the Al-Qibli Mosque to prevent its storming. This group is also trying all the time to knock on the doors and windows of the mosque, in an attempt to confuse and disturb the settlers and the occupation soldiers deployed in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The occupation forces fired sound and gas bombs inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, to silence the sounds of roads, and members of the occupation police climbed the roof of the Al-Qibli Mosque.
Palestinian platforms broadcast video clips showing Palestinian female soldiers confronting the occupation forces and settlers during the storming operation this morning, with supplications and exclamations.
Occupation forces are trying to empty the Dome of the Rock from al-Murabatat. pic.twitter.com/nGubirfo0p
— AlQastal Al Qastal (@AlQastalps) April 19, 2022
Yesterday, the occupation forces attacked Palestinians in Al-Aqsa Mosque, with groups of settlers breaking into the mosque's courtyards again.
Clashes erupted between Palestinian youths and the Israeli occupation forces.
On the other hand, thousands of orthodox Jews participated in the so-called "blessing of the priests" prayer in the courtyard of the Western Wall.
This took place amid strict security measures by the occupation authorities, which deployed reinforcements in the entire vicinity of the area, as well as at the entrances to the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, specifically the Mughrabi Gate leading to this area.
This prayer is considered one of the Jewish Passover prayers, and the second will be held on Wednesday.
Settlers storm the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque under police guard on all days of the week, except on Fridays and Saturdays.
This week's incursions coincide with the Jewish Passover holiday, which began last Friday evening and continues until Thursday, and settler groups called for intensifying incursions during this holiday period.
Storming the Ibrahimi Mosque
In Hebron, the occupation authorities closed the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims, and allowed dozens of Jews to perform religious rituals in its courtyards.
The Israeli occupation forces tightened their military measures inside the Old City of Hebron in the southern West Bank, and closed a number of streets and entrances leading to the Ibrahimi Mosque, which suspended Muslims from entering for two days due to the Jewish Passover holiday.
The Ministry of Islamic Endowments in Hebron said that the occupation authorities closed the campus permanently to Palestinians on Monday and Tuesday, prevented the call to prayer through loudspeakers, and allowed settlers to use the Muslim section to perform religious rituals and celebrate the holiday inside.
For its part, Hamas said - in a statement - that the closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque by the occupation authorities is a serious violation of sanctities and a provocation to the feelings of Muslims.
The movement called on the people of the West Bank to mobilize and mobilize to stop the violations of the occupation against the Ibrahimi Mosque.
Raids on Gaza
Coinciding with the events in Jerusalem, Israeli warplanes launched several raids late Monday night, targeting a site of Palestinian resistance factions west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli raids caused material damage to the target site and the surrounding agricultural land, while no injuries were reported.
The Israeli army said that its warplanes carried out a raid targeting a workshop for the manufacture of weapons in the Gaza Strip, belonging to the Hamas movement.
The spokesman for the occupation army, Avichai Adraee, added that the raid came in response to the earlier firing of a rocket-propelled grenade from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli towns adjacent to the Strip, blaming Hamas for what is happening in the Strip.
Adraee confirmed that the Israeli army activated the sirens in the Gaza envelope area, while Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that the Israeli cabinet would meet to discuss the latest developments.
On the other hand, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said that its air defenses confronted the Israeli warplanes over the Gaza Strip with surface-to-air missiles.
The movement said that the Israeli army's bombing of resistance sites was a failed attempt to prevent the Palestinian people from defending the city of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The movement’s spokesman, Hazem Qassem, confirmed that the Israeli bombing came to cover up the occupation’s violation of international laws and norms, by attacking worshipers in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
He added that confrontation with the occupation army is a natural right of the Palestinian people on all axes of engagement, in retaliation for the aggression against Jerusalem and its holy sites, as he put it.
In turn, the Secretary-General of Islamic Jihad, Ziad al-Nakhala, said that the enemy's threats to stop the facilities on Gaza will not silence the Palestinians about what is happening in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Diplomatic contacts and movements
Yesterday, Monday, diplomatic sources said that the UN Security Council will hold a closed session on Tuesday morning to discuss the escalation of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
France, Ireland, China, Norway and the UAE requested that this meeting be held, while the Jordanian Foreign Ministry stated that the Kingdom of Jordan would host an emergency ministerial meeting on Thursday to confront the Israeli violations at Al-Aqsa.
In the reactions, the Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, received a phone call from Jordanian King Abdullah II, in which they reviewed the latest developments in occupied Palestine and the escalation in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
During the call, the Emir of Qatar stressed the need to immediately stop the attacks and provocative practices of the Israeli occupation forces against worshipers and defenseless civilians in the mosque.
For his part, King Abdullah II of Jordan called for stopping all measures, which he described as illegal and provocative, that violate the historical and legal status quo at the Temple Mount.
In this context, the Jordanian Royal Court said that King Abdullah II stressed, in a phone call, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the need to continue making all efforts to stop the dangerous Israeli escalation in Jerusalem.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed, during a telephone conversation with the Jordanian king, to continue consultations and joint action in the international arena, to stop what Abbas described as "the brutal Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to stop the killing and abuse against the Palestinians."
In a phone call on Monday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Jordanian king stressed the need to stop all illegal and provocative Israeli measures on the Temple Mount, according to the Jordanian royal court via its Twitter account.
Within the same contacts, Russian President Vladimir Putin affirmed Russia's firm position to support the rights of the Palestinian people, adding that Russia will continue to provide its political support to the Palestinian cause in all international forums.
During a telephone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the latest developments on the Palestinian and international arenas, Putin stressed his rejection of Israeli practices that prevent worshipers from freely accessing Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the need to respect the existing historical status of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem.
The US State Department said it was deeply concerned about what it described as the outbreak of violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and called on the parties to exercise restraint, and stressed that the Israeli and Palestinian authorities should take the necessary measures to calm the situation.
Also in the reactions, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said that Al-Aqsa Mosque is a place for Muslims only.
Shtayyeh added, in a speech during the weekly session at the government headquarters in Ramallah, that the repetition of what the occupation forces are doing against Al-Aqsa Mosque and the worshipers in it is a brutal act and amounts to a crime, as he described it, calling for the need to stop these practices in order to preserve the sanctity of the place.
In turn, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) affirmed that the Palestinian people have thwarted the fait accompli and attempts to divide the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The head of the movement's political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, also briefed Malaysian Foreign Minister Saif al-Din Abdullah on the latest developments in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the settlers' attempts to introduce sacrifices and slaughter them inside the mosque.
In a phone call, Haniyeh stressed the importance of rejecting the Arab and Islamic community, and condemning what the Palestinian people and their sanctities are subjected to, which he described as crimes and dangerous practices.
For his part, the Malaysian Foreign Minister affirmed his country's rejection of normalization with the occupation, he said, expressing regret that the foreign ministers of some Arab countries met with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recently.
In Tehran, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi said that some countries' normalization of relations with Israel encouraged them and exacerbated their attacks on the Palestinians.
In a speech on the occasion of Iranian Army Day, Raisi stressed that if Israel takes any step against the Iranian people, Tehran will respond to it in the heart of Israel, as he put it.