The file photo shows roadblocks placed by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. (By Wafa news agency)

Tel Aviv, September 26 (RHC)-- Israeli authorities have announced a full closure of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip crossings as the regime imposes tighter restrictions in the occupied Palestinian territories prior to the Jewish holidays.  Palestine’s Wafa news agency said the closure began on Sunday afternoon and would last until Tuesday midnight.

The news agency said Israeli police had intensified security measures by deploying thousands of forces and placing roadblocks and military checkpoints in occupied al-Quds, particularly in and around the Old City and on roads leading to al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Israeli police were also reported to have intensified their presence at gates leading to al-Aqsa Mosque and imposed severe restrictions on the entry of Palestinians to the mosque.  Earlier in the day, Israeli settlers once again stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds in the latest act of provocation against the sacred Palestinian site.

The incident took place amid calls by Israeli settler organizations to hold mass break-ins into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound ahead of the Jewish holidays on September 29.

In a statement on Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas warned of “repercussions” over Israel’s incursions into al-Aqsa before the start of the Jewish holidays, when settler raids on the super-sensitive compound mount.

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 Israeli regime enables the Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa despite the fact that an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government in the wake of Israel’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967 prohibits non-Muslim worship at the compound.

Israeli authorities forced Palestinian man Fareed Jaber to totally knock down his house in the vicinity of the Bab al-Asbat entrance of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City on September 25, 2022. (Photo by the Palestinian Information Center)