Dozens of illegal Israeli settlers entered the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem under heavy Israeli security on Thursday, April 6, a day after occupation forces raided the compound for the second consecutive night during Ramadan and attacked peaceful Palestinian worshipers on Wednesday.
Israeli settlers celebrating Passover reportedly performed prayers inside the mosque compound in violation of the status quo agreement signed in 1967, according to which non-Muslims can only visit the mosque compound as tourists and cannot offer any kind of prayer.
Israeli violence inside Al-Aqsa continued even as the UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting over the issue on Thursday. This is the fourth UNSC meeting over Israeli violence against Palestinians since the extremist right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in Israel. The meeting was called by the UAE and China.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes pounded the besieged Gaza strip for the second consecutive day on Thursday. There are no reports on casualties so far. Israel claimed the airstrikes were a response to rockets fired towards its territory from Gaza.
Israeli violence against Palestinian worshipers
According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, dozens of heavily armed Israeli troops barged into the Kibli prayer hall inside the Al-Aqsa compound and brutally assaulted Palestinians performing the Taraweeh night prayer on Tuesday.
Scores of Palestinians were injured in the attacks, some of them elderly persons. Israeli occupation forces also arrested around 400 Palestinians from the compound during Tuesday night’s raid.
On Wednesday night, around 20,000 worshipers were present inside the compound when Israeli forces attacked. The Israeli police assaulted the worshipers with clubs, concussion grenades, tear gas canisters, and rubber coated bullets in an attempt to force them out of the prayer hall.
Several videos circulating on social media show heavily armed Israeli occupation forces beating Palestinians and shooting at them inside the mosque compound.
BREAKING: Israeli forces storm Al-Qibli prayer hall at Al-Aqsa Mosque. pic.twitter.com/yeqc98P7dR
— PALESTINE ONLINE ?? (@OnlinePalEng) April 5, 2023
In some videos, the Israeli security forces can also be seen assaulting Palestinians performing prayers. As per the latest reports from occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli occupation forces are not allowing Palestinians below the age of 40 to enter the mosque compound.
Israeli occupation forces are forcefully evicting worshippers from Al-Aqsa Mosque. Why? So that Jewish settlers can freely roam the compound.
They have no business in there but provocation. It’s a daily struggle of existence for Palestinians in Jerusalem. https://t.co/rfLp9ScOlB
— Marwa Fatafta مروة فطافطة (@marwasf) April 5, 2023
Widespread condemnation of Israel
Following Tuesday’s aggression, Palestinians held protests at different places inside Israel on Wednesday and Thursday. Protests were held in cities such as Haifa, Nazareth, Kufr Kanna, and Umm al-Fahm, among others.
Al-Jazeera reported that the Israeli forces used heavy force to disperse the protesters, also using tear gas and stun grenades against them.
Several protests were held inside the occupied West Bank as well. In Nablus, at least 12 Palestinians were injured after Israeli occupation forces threw canisters with poisonous gas at the protesters. The Israeli forces carried out similar repressive attacks on protesters in places such as Hebron, Jenin, and Bethlehem, Al-Jazeera reported.
Israeli aggression inside Al-Aqsa has led to heavy global condemnation. UN Secretary General António Guterres said that he is “shocked and appalled by the images” emerging from the mosque compound.
Reacting to the violence, UN special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland issued a statement saying, “I am disturbed by the apparent beating of Palestinians by Israeli security forces and large number of arrests.” He called for the maintenance of the “historic status quo.”
Apart from restricting non-Muslims’ right to prayer inside the mosque, the 1967 agreement—between Israel and Jordan—also specifies that maintenance and management of security inside the mosque compound is the responsibility of the Jordanian-controlled waqf.
Several activists and politicians also reacted to the violence. Jeremy Corbyn, MP from Islington in the UK, called the Israeli aggression against Palestinians an “egregious violation of human rights” and part of Israel’s continuing “apartheid with impunity.”
The Israeli aggression was also condemned by countries like Turkey, Morocco, and Iran. The Palestinian Authority (PA) in a statement on Wednesday said that by continuing its assaults inside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Israel is “creating an atmosphere of escalation, instability and tension.”