ALBAWABA - Sunday morning, groups of Israeli settlers broke into the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque while being backed up by highly armed occupation forces. They performed Talmudic rituals that Palestinian sources said were offensive.
Witnesses in Jerusalem said that dozens of settlers came in groups, where priests gave talks about the supposed "Temple." In the meantime, occupation forces put up tight military barriers at the gates of the mosques and throughout the Old City, making it harder for Palestinian worshipers to get in and out.
Calls for mobilization and more incursions
The latest raid comes after larger ones two weeks ago, when more than 4,700 settlers, including Israeli ministers and members of the Knesset, entered Al-Aqsa during the Jewish holiday of Passover and performed religious practices and waved Israeli flags.
In reaction, activists in Jerusalem called on Palestinians in the city and across the occupied interior to join forces and stay at the mosque to stop the plans by the settlers. They stressed how important it was for everyone to pray at Al-Aqsa and said that this was a realistic way to fight Israeli efforts to cut down on the number of worshipers and separate the site from its religious and social surroundings.
Reactions in politics and religion
Haroun Nasser Al-Din, head of Jerusalem affairs for Hamas and a member of the political bureau, said that the rising movements of settlers were part of an overall Israeli plan to "Judaize" Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem and take full control over them.
Putting up provocative dances, adding Torah symbols, and destroying graves at Bab Al-Rahma Cemetery, he said, showed "the criminal face of settler gangs" working with the help of the far-right Israeli government.
Nasser Al-Din said that tearing down Palestinian houses in Jerusalem and projects to make the city more Jewish will not change the minds of Jerusalemites. He also said that plans to annex and move the people will fail in the end, even though Israel's attacks are getting worse. He asked Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians all over the world to do more to protect Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem.
Rising violence between settlers in the West Bank
In the meantime, on Sunday, Israeli settlers attacked in a violent way all over the occupied West Bank. Settlers in Ramallah threw rocks at Palestinian cars near Turmus Ayya, damaging several of them. In the northern Jordan Valley, they broke water tanks and pipes that brought water to Palestinian villages.
Settlers in Jericho let animals graze on Palestinian houses and farmland in the Al-Auja area. This stopped the people who lived there from grazing their animals and trying to take control of the land.
