Scores of Israeli settlers break into Al-Aqsa Mosque

Occupied Al- Quds, (ST) – Scores of Israeli settlers escorted by police today broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Al_Quds (Jerusalem) and performed rituals throughout its courtyards, according to witnesses.

The Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department, in charge of the holy site, said scores of Israeli settlers entered the compound through Al-Mughrabi Gate in groups and performed rituals and Talmudic prayers there under the protection of Israeli occupation police officers.

The development comes amid calls by far-right Temple Mount organizations urging their members and supporters to break into the holy site en masse on September 29 on the occasion of the Jewish New Year.

Since 2003, the Israeli occupation authorities have allowed settlers into the compound almost on a daily basis, with the exclusion of Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship.

The Islamic Waqf has repeatedly described the settlers’ presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque as provocative, saying that Palestinian worshippers and guards at Al-Aqsa Mosque feel uncomfortable with the presence of Israeli police and settlers touring the Islamic holy site.

Settlers assault Palestinians in Hebron

On the other hand in Hebron, a group of extremist Israeli settlers today went on a rampage shattering the windshields of parked vehicles and assaulting Palestinian passers-by in the Old City of Hebron, south of the West Bank, according to local and Palestinian security sources.

Scores of settlers reportedly rampaged across the streets of Hebron’s Old City where they pelted stones and physically attacked Palestinian-owned vehicles shattering their windshields, the sources said.

The attacking settlers also pelted stones at Palestinian civilians in the neighborhoods adjacent to the colonial Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba.

The city of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinians and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in compounds heavily guarded by Israeli occupation troops.

“Israel” has expelled the only international monitors protecting Hebron’s Palestinians from 800 heavily guarded settlers, one of whom committed the 1994 massacre that triggered their deployment.

 Wafa News Agency

Raghda Sawas