Israeli occupation forces surround worshipers in Al-Aqsa Mosque (Reuters - Archive)

Al Jazeera's correspondent in occupied Jerusalem reported that the occupation forces reinforced their military presence in the Old City and its surroundings in Jerusalem ahead of Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The correspondent examined the security situation in occupied Jerusalem, noting that the occupation forces set up security barriers preventing the entry of any Palestinian who is not a resident of the Old City.

In another context, today, Friday, Israeli settlers burned a house, a vehicle, and a barn for raising sheep in the Palestinian village of “Kisan,” east of the city of “Bethlehem,” in the south of the West Bank.

The head of the village council in Kisan, Musa Abayat, told Anadolu Agency that settlers attacked the village at dawn, and set fire to a house, a vehicle, and a barn for raising sheep.

Abayat pointed out that the fire “caused significant damage to property,” but no human casualties were recorded.

The Council President stated that the village has been subjected to escalating attacks by settlers since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Peace Now estimates that more than 700,000 settlers reside in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Israeli human rights organizations say that settler violence in the West Bank has increased significantly in recent years, and escalated at a noticeable pace in late 2023, with the protection of Israeli forces.

Since October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving as of Friday morning 28,775 martyrs and 68,552 injured.

The West Bank is witnessing a wave of tension and field confrontations between Palestinians and the Israeli occupation army, interspersed with raids and arrests of Palestinians, in conjunction with the aggression on the Gaza Strip, which left tens of thousands of martyrs and wounded civilians, most of them children and women.

It is noteworthy that the latest statistics of the Palestinian Prisoner Club indicated that 7,040 Palestinians have been subjected to arrest campaigns carried out by the occupation forces in the West Bank since the beginning of the war on Gaza.

The number of Palestinians killed by the occupation and its settlers since the beginning of the aggression against Gaza also rose to 395 martyrs.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies