Jerusalem, October 7 (RHC)-- Dozens of Israeli settlers have violated the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of East Jerusalem al-Quds under the tight protection of regime forces.  According to a statement by the Department of Islamic Endowments in Jerusalem al-Quds, carried by the Palestine Information Center, 121 Israeli settlers entered the compound from the Moroccan Gate on Sunday morning, attempting to perform rituals.

It said that 62 of the extremist settlers performed rituals in the courtyards while the mosque guards prevented many others from doing so during their provocative tours at the holy site.
Israeli forces stationed at al-Aqsa gates imposed restrictions on Palestinian worshipers’ access to the mosque, demanded their ID cards, frisked them, and searched their bags, the statement added.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound sits just above the Western Wall plaza and houses both the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.  According to an agreement signed between the Israeli regime and the Jordanian government after Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.

Palestinians want the occupied West Bank as part of their future independent state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of their future sovereign state.

Separately on Sunday, the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, in a statement, strongly condemned the decision made by the Israeli military to shut the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil (Hebron) on Sunday and next Wednesday in order to allow Israeli settlers to hold celebrations inside it.  The ministry further said that the Israeli forces intended to storm the Mosque on Tuesday from 02:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. local time.

Husam Abul-Rab, the deputy minister of religious affairs, stressed the need to immediately move to save the mosque and to end all such violations against the holy site.