Over 100 Israeli settlers storm Aqsa Mosque in latest act of provocation against holy site

At least 120 Israeli settlers have stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds under the protection of the regime’s forces in the latest act of provocation against the sacred site.

The settlers entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate on Monday morning to mark a Jewish religious occasion and perform Talmudic prayers under the full protection of Israeli forces.

Hardline Israeli legislators and extremist settlers regularly storm the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied city, a provocative move that infuriates Palestinians. Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of Tel Aviv-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the Israeli police in al-Quds.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza, houses both the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa is permitted, but according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government in the wake of Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.

Back in early October, an Israeli court upheld a ban on Jewish prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, after an earlier lower court's decision stirred outrage among various Palestinians and across the Muslim world.

Judge of the district court in al-Quds Aryeh Romanov on October 8 confirmed that Jews are barred from worshiping openly at the site, and only Muslims are permitted to pray there.

In issuing the ruling, Romanov said the fact that the defendant, an Israeli settler identified as Rabbi Aryeh Lippo, had been caught served as proof that his prayer at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound was overt.

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“What is important… is the fact that there was someone who noticed the appellee praying, which evidently shows that the prayer was overt. If it was not overt, no one would have noticed it,” the judge wrote.

The ruling came after Israel's public security minister Omer Bar-Lev appealed the lower court's decision days earlier not to regard prayer by Jewish worshipers as a “criminal act” if it remained silent, and warned that “a change in the existing status quo” would spark violent protests and could cause a flare-up.

Back in May, frequent acts of violence against Palestinian worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque led to an 11-day war between Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli regime, during which the regime killed at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children.

Palestinians want the occupied West Bank as part of their future independent state and view al-Quds’ eastern sector as the capital of their future sovereign state.

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