Palestine: Israeli police storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, detain 400 Palestinians
By Abdelraouf Arnaout and Enes Canli
JERUSALEM (AA): On the dawn of the fourteenth day of Ramadan, the Israeli police on Wednesday said they detained more than 400 Palestinians from the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in East Jerusalem. After Israeli forces’ raid, the Israel army and the police escorted dozens of Israeli Jewish settlers into the holy compound, assaulted worshipers, including women, and abducted three medics.
The details of the Israeli forces raid include “masked men, and those who threw stones and fireworks.”
The Commission for Palestinian Prisoners Affairs said the police began to release the detainees on the condition that they be removed from Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City in Jerusalem for a week.
A group of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the Al-Qibli Prayer Hall in the complex after Jewish settlers called for a raid on the mosque.
They attempted to prevent police from entering by closing its doors.
Surrounding the Al-Qibli Prayer Hall, Israeli police went up to the roof of the mosque, smashed some of the windows and initially intervened with sound bombs against the worshipers inside. Some of the people in the mosque tried to resist the police by throwing fireworks.
The police then entered the prayer hall and fired a barrage of sound bombs, tear gas and rubber-coated bullets.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said seven Palestinians were injured from rubber-tipped bullets and police beatings.
They added that the invasions targeted various parts of Al-Aqsa, including the Dome of the Rock, its surrounding areas, and the eastern parts of Al-Aqsa courtyards.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the army and the police prevented its medics from entering the Al-Aqsa, assaulted many of them in the Bab Al-Asbat area, in addition to causing damage to several ambulances, reported imemc.org.
The invasions and violations lasted more than five hours, starting at midnight, including invasions and closures of streets and alleys in the Old City to prevent the Palestinians from entering the holy site.
Jewish settlers under protection of Israeli police enter compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan & Passover holiday in East Jerusalem, on April 05, 2023. ( Enes Canlı – Anadolu Agency )
Muslim countries condemned Israeli forces raids into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and attacking and detaining Palestinians Muslim worshippers during holy month of Ramadan.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement today that the Kingdom “condemns this blatant intrusion and expresses its categorical rejection of these practices that undermine peace efforts and are contrary to international principles and norms that call for respect of religious sanctities.”
It reaffirmed its position in supporting all efforts aimed at ending the Israeli occupation and reaching a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue.
Egypt in a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry that “such hateful and reprehensible scenes, and repeated Israeli violations of the sanctity of the holy places, fuel feelings of anger among all the Palestinian people and Islamic nation.”
Jordan’s Foreign Minister also strongly condemned the Israeli police storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque and called on Israel “to stop such acts against worshippers, which it said violate international norms, holding Israel fully responsible for any consequences.”
“The attack revealed the regime anti-human rights nature once again”, Iran’s Foreign Minister spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on his Twitter page in Farsi early on Wednesday.
“Iran strongly condemns Zionist regime’s crime in Al-Aqsa Mosque”, the spokesman wrote.
Israeli forces and Jewish settlers frequently carry out raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque to provoke Palestinians.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents Islam’s third-holiest site. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
*Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara contributed to this report
Additional report by The Muslim News
[Photo: Israeli police forcible detaining a Palestinian Muslim woman worshipper in Ramadan after a raid by Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in East Jerusalem, on April 05, 2023. Photojournalist :Enes Live/AA]
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