Israeli mobs stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, as well as villages in the occupied West Bank, on the occasion of a Jewish holiday.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a crowd of thousands into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday and prayed. Despite a ban on Jewish religious rites there, Israeli police reportedly offered protection to him and illegal settlers involved in violence in the West Bank.
Ben-Gvir vowed to “defeat Hamas” in Gaza in a video he filmed during his visit and prayers.
Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam and a symbol of Palestinian national identity, but it is also the holiest site in Judaism. Tisha B’Av is a Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the site of an ancient temple by the Romans in 70 AD.
Ben-Gvir, who heads a radical political party that supports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, led more than 2,000 Israelis through the compound singing Jewish hymns under the protection of Israeli police, an official from the Waqf, the Jordanian body that custodians the site, told AFP.
“Minister Ben-Gvir, instead of maintaining the status quo at the mosque, is supervising the Judaization operation and trying to change the situation inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the official said.
Israeli police also “imposed restrictions” on Muslim worshipers trying to enter the mosque, he added.
Negev and Galilee Affairs Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf and other members of the Israeli Knesset reportedly joined the march.
Tensions in the West Bank
In the West Bank, Israeli settlers held a series of marches to commemorate the day, according to local media.
“(The settlers) are taking advantage of the fact that there is a religious holiday and a religious commemoration to… claim more Palestinian land,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Nida Ibrahim reported from Ramallah.
She said residents of one village, At-Tawani, told her it was the largest settler invasion the community had seen so far, something that has become a regular occurrence.
“We have seen this before. The settlers take advantage of the fact that they have a religious ceremony and they try to celebrate it in an occupied territory,” Ibrahim continued, noting that villages are often invaded during such events.
Tensions and violence between Israeli settlers, police and the army on the one hand, and Palestinian armed groups and civilians on the other, have increased since Israel began its war on Gaza in October.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers part of the West Bank, says more than 624 Palestinians, including 145 children, have been killed. Thousands more have been arrested or forced from their homes in demolitions and land confiscations in the past decade.
At least 18 Israelis, including 12 members of the security forces, have also been killed in the occupied territory.
Early Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man and wounded at least four others when they raided the homes of Palestinian prisoners and demolished two apartments in the cities of Ramallah and el-Bireh, local media reported.
Moataz Sarsour, a resident of al-Am’ari refugee camp in the Ramallah and el-Bireh area, died of his injuries at the Palestinian medical complex, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Wafa did not provide further details on the condition of three other shooting victims or a young man hit by an Israeli army vehicle during the pre-dawn raids.
Impunity
Israel is stepping up its violent raids in the occupied West Bank and trying to change the “status quo” in East Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as the world’s attention remains focused on the Gaza war, said Hassan Barari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University.
“(The settlers) think this is some kind of golden opportunity, that the region is in turmoil and the government is the most extremist in history… and they want to exploit this to change the status quo (of) the mosque,” Barari told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“The international community is either complicit or indifferent to what is happening in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,” he added, noting that Western leaders issue empty condemnations and little concrete action.
“Israel feels it can do whatever it wants with impunity in the West Bank.”
