The Mughrabi Gate, one of the doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque in its western wall, was closed today, after 423 extremist men and women carried out an incursion in groups, during which the Israeli flag was raised, according to what was announced by the Islamic Endowments Department, which runs the mosque.
In addition to raising the Israeli flag, during the storming, public prayers were performed in the eastern courtyard of the mosque, and the Israeli national anthem “Hatikvah” was chanted in front of the western plaza separating the Dome of the Rock prayer hall and Bab al-Silsilah, one of the doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The extremists, protected by the occupation police, succeeded in storming the first two qibla and establishing the presence of the Israeli flag in several ways. Including wearing a scarf with it, carrying it and waving it, or deliberately wearing the Jewish religious hat (kippah) embroidered with the flag, according to circulating pictures and video clips.
Abdullah Marouf, a researcher specializing in Jerusalem affairs, said on his account on the “X” platform that settlers raised the Israeli flag 4 times during the morning raids on the mosque, from 7:30 in the morning until 11:30 shortly before noon.
He added that the occupation forces “dealed with complete kindness with those who raised the occupation flag, and prevented many Jerusalemites of all ages from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, and expelled worshipers from it.”
These violations come on the anniversary of the Nakba, in response to the extremist Temple groups’ call to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque on the so-called Israeli “Independence Day,” corresponding to May 14 every year, and urging their supporters to raise hundreds of Israeli flags on this occasion “in the holiest place for the nation of Israel,” as they put it.
To ensure a quiet intrusion of extremists into the mosque, the police stationed at the gates escalated their violations by preventing most of the worshipers from entering it, and later, in a dangerous precedent, they deliberately closed the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem and deployed their forces in front of them to prevent Jerusalemites from entering the Old City and reaching the gates of Al-Aqsa.
In a new measure, the police announced via loudspeakers that Damascus Gate was closed until two o’clock in the afternoon after erecting iron barriers. They also prohibited presence on its terraces and expelled Palestinian youth and some Jerusalemites who were sitting on it waiting for the door to be opened for them.
On the anniversary of the so-called “Independence Day”… a settler raises the flag of the Israeli occupation state as he storms the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque this morning, with the protection of the occupation police.
The Temple groups called on their supporters to hold the largest demonstration to raise about 500 Israeli flags inside Al-Aqsa Square during the raids scheduled to be carried out today. pic.twitter.com/3OqngsAHaM
– Tel Aviv Tribune Net | Jerusalem (@Aljazeeraquds) May 14, 2024
On their pages, Temple groups bragged about publishing a video clip of a settler storming the mosque and raising the Israeli flag in front of the Western Bike, while he and others began singing the Israeli national anthem.
Although this violation was previously met with a violent response from the police, two policemen contented themselves with approaching the settler and urging him to lower the flag quietly, which was ignored.
It is noteworthy that daily violations are carried out by supporters of extremist Temple groups and their leaders inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and at its gates, and these violations have escalated since the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle on the seventh of last October.
They took advantage of the world’s preoccupation with the devastating war on the Gaza Strip, and under the cover of the police, they carried out violations that would not have been possible with the presence of worshipers and their spread in the squares of the first Qibla, a presence that the occupation police have been fighting by all means since the outbreak of the war.