Today, Monday, extremist settlers raised Israeli flags inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, and performed collective Jewish prayers in it.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that dozens of settlers raised Israeli flags and chanted their state anthem and provocative slogans as they stormed Al-Aqsa.
In the morning, 216 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa from Al-Maghariba Gate, under the strict protection of the occupation police.
During the raid, settlers performed "epic prostration" at Bab al-Qattanin, one of the gates of Al-Aqsa, and performed provocative dances, rituals and Talmudic prayers on the outer side of Bab al-Silsilah.
đź“· A provocative scene.. Settlers raise the occupation flag inside the courtyards of the blessed #Al-Aqsa Mosque and dance with it during its storming this morning, Monday 1/23/2023)!!
Where are the typists of this event!!?
pic.twitter.com/UPKWtLm2ZE
- homeland.
He tweets outside the flock (@watanserb_news) January 23, 2023
These practices come at a time when parties within the new Israeli government are calling for a change in the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Also, 8 members of the occupation intelligence forces stormed the Dome of the Rock mosque, and 6 Israeli antiquities employees stormed the Al-Qibli and Al-Marwani chapels inside the Temple Mount this morning.
On the other hand, the occupation police imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers from Jerusalem and the occupied interior to Al-Aqsa Mosque, and checked their identities and detained some of them at the gates of the Haram.
dangerous event
Najeh Bkerat, Deputy Director General of the Awqaf, said that raising the flag of the occupation and repeating the collective "epic prostration" inside Al-Aqsa is a very dangerous event. .
Press coverage: "The Rabbi of the "Jewish Power" Party, Yehuda Croiso, and his son, Knesset Member of the Ben Gvir Party, Yitzhak Croiso, stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque this morning."
pic.twitter.com/UA4agEyqfr
- AlQastal Al-Qastal (@AlQastalps) January 23, 2023
The Palestinians accuse Israel of working at an intense pace to Judaize Jerusalem and obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity, while they cling to East Jerusalem as the capital of the hoped-for state based on the resolutions of international legitimacy, which do not recognize Israel's occupation of the city in 1967 nor its annexation to it in 1981.
The status quo has prevailed since before the Israeli occupation in 1967, according to which the Islamic Endowment Department is responsible for managing the affairs of the mosque, without any authority for the Israeli government to interfere in it.
In 2003, the Israeli government allowed Israeli extremists to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque through the Mughrabi Gate in the western wall of the mosque.
Since then, the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem has opposed these incursions, and demanded that they stop, but without a response from the Israeli government.
International, Arab and Israeli media described Netanyahu's government, which was sworn in on December 29, 2022, as the most right-wing in Israel's history.
On January 3, under Israeli police escort, the new government's Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, stormed the mosque's courtyards for a quarter of an hour, in a move condemned by the Palestinians, Arab and Western capitals, and representatives in the Israeli Knesset (parliament).