Jerusalem: Dozens of Jewish settlers on Wednesday stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque/ Haram Al Sharif, making their way into the complex through the Magharibah Gate under heavy protection by Israeli police.
According to Jordan News Agency, the Islamic Waqf (endowments) Department in Jerusalem stated that settler groups raided the compound, carried out provocations, danced, and performed loud prayers, including the "epic prostration" Talmudic ritual.
The Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Jerusalem Affairs Department warned against the tight security imposed by Israeli occupation forces at the gates of Al Aqsa ahead of recurrent settler incursions. The department stressed that these incursions represent a systematic escalation and reality alteration inside Al-Aqsa to serve the colonial project of the occupation government, entrenching a policy to diminish Islamic presence at the expense of settlement expansion.
The occupation authority no longer treats the incursions as isolated incidents but seeks to impose them as a new reality. The PLO's statement warned that closing the mosque's gates to Muslim worshippers while opening them to extremist settlers constitutes a policy of "religious apartheid" that threatens to ignite a religious conflict extending beyond Jerusalem.