Israeli Police Forcibly Evict Worshipers from Al-Aqsa Mosque

Jerusalem, MINA – Scores of police-guarded Israeli settlers today on Sunday broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem in groups, hours after the police forcibly evicted hundreds of Muslim worshipers from the holy site, Wafa reported.

The Jordan-run Islamic Waqf authority, in charge of the holy site, said scores of Israeli settlers entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate in groups of forty and performed rituals there under heavy protection by the Israeli police.

Earlier in the morning, Israeli police raided the holy site and forcibly evicted Muslim worshipers who had been holding a night-long vigil there for worship during the holy month of Ramadan.

The police also assaulted some of the Muslim worshipers who remained at the holy site during the presence of the Israeli Jewish settlers, amid attempts by the occupation authorities to impose a temporal division of the holy site between Muslims and Jews.

Hundreds of Israeli police officers were also deployed across the Old City of Jerusalem ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, to be observed next Wednesday, which coincides with Ramadan.

Since 2003, the Israeli occupation authorities have been allowing settlers into the compound almost on a daily basis, with the exclusion of Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship.

The Islamic Waqf has repeatedly described the settlers’ presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque as provocative, saying that Palestinian worshippers and guards at Al-Aqsa feel uncomfortable with the presence of Israeli police and settlers touring the Islamic holy site.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, during the Six-Day War in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)