10/22/2024–|Last updated: 10/22/202403:36 PM (Mecca time)
The Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem reported that 774 settlers stormed the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque today, Tuesday, coinciding with the sixth day of the so-called “Throne Day,” amid protection from the Israeli occupation army. Meanwhile, the occupation forces arrested 28 Palestinians during their storming of various areas of the West Bank at dawn today, including a child and former prisoners, according to official Palestinian statements.
Palestinian sources said that successive groups of settlers stormed Al-Aqsa in large numbers, and performed Talmudic rituals in its courtyards. Hundreds of settlers also performed Talmudic prayers in front of Bab Al-Qattanin, one of the doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque, carrying what are called plant offerings.
The occupation forces strengthened their presence in the Old City, Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings, to secure settlers’ incursions.
The occupation deployed dozens of police officers at the gates of Al-Aqsa, its roads, and the gates of the Old City, and obstructed the arrival of worshipers. He also closed the roads in the Lions’ Gate area, and allowed vehicles and buses carrying settlers to pass towards the Mughrabi Gate to Al-Buraq Square.
The courtyards of Al-Aqsa are witnessing a continuous increase in the number of invading settlers. Years ago, their numbers did not exceed 5,000 annually, while this year they reached more than 60,000 invading settlers.
The frequency of raids on the mosque usually increases during periods of Jewish holidays, and is carried out in two periods. In the morning and after the noon prayer, with facilities and escort from the occupation police.
Since 2003, the occupation police have unilaterally allowed settlers to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque for several hours a day, except for Fridays and Saturdays, despite repeated opposition from the Islamic Endowments Department, which calls for an end to these raids.
In this context, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered the Israeli government’s intention to change the historical and legal reality of Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of the Judaization of Jerusalem as part of a war of extermination and displacement of the Palestinians.
The Ministry explained – in a statement – that it views with great seriousness the daily escalation in the incursions of extremist settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque and the escalation of their performing more rituals and Talmudic prayers in its courtyards.
She said that this is an attempt to transform this scene into a tangible and familiar reality due to its repetition every day, with the aim of accelerating the episodes of its spatial division until the mosque is demolished and the alleged structure is built in its place.
The statement indicated a free hand for extremist settlers to take more unilateral and illegal steps to annex the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry pointed out that it is continuing, in partnership with its brothers in Jordan, its international political, diplomatic and legal movement to expose the occupation’s violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to mobilize the broadest international front of pressure to protect Jerusalem and its sanctities.
Storms and arrests
In the context of the occupation forces’ daily incursions into West Bank cities and towns, the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club announced, in a joint statement, that the occupation forces had arrested 28 Palestinians last night and at dawn today, including a child and former prisoners, bringing the total number of detainees in the West Bank to more than 11,400 detainees. Since October 7, 2023.
The joint statement explained that among the detainees were 15 Palestinians from the Arroub refugee camp in northern Hebron, south of the West Bank, while the rest of the arrests were distributed among the governorates of Ramallah, Salfit, Bethlehem, Nablus, and Qalqilya.
According to the statement, the arrest campaign was accompanied by widespread harassment, severe beatings, and threats against detainees and their families, in addition to “operations of sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes.”
The occupation continues to carry out widespread raids and harassment, accompanied by threats against detainees and their families, in addition to sabotage and destruction of the homes of Palestinian citizens.
The statement indicated that the Israeli occupation army continues field investigations with dozens of Palestinians in the town of Deir Abu Mishal, west of the city of Ramallah in the central West Bank.
He pointed out that field investigation operations have escalated significantly in the recent period in all governorates of the West Bank, and have included hundreds of young men.
In parallel with the genocidal war – which Israel has been committing with American support since October 7, 2023 – the occupation army expanded its operations in the West Bank, and the settlers escalated their attacks on the Palestinians and their property, resulting in the martyrdom of 759 Palestinians in total, the injury of about 6,250 others, and the arrest of 11,300. Palestinian, according to official Palestinian data.
The ongoing Israeli genocidal war on Gaza has resulted in more than 142,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing persons, amid massive destruction and famine that left dozens of children and the elderly martyred, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.