WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Some 2,000 Zionists broke into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Al-Quds on Sunday, sparking tensions with Palestinians worshipers.
The Zionists, including Itamar Ben-Gvir, a lawmaker and the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, entered the compound in the morning under heavy police guard.
At least six Palestinians were arrested, the Zionist police said in a statement.
Palestine’s official Wafa news agency said groups of Israeli settlers, under full police protection, stormed the holy site in the morning and clashed with a handful of Palestinian Muslim worshipers holding a vigil inside the compound.
Zionist troops arrested two Palestinians at one of the gates leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and also imposed strict restrictions on the entry of Palestinians to the holy site.
Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of regime-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the Zionist police in Al-Quds.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas lambasted the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Zionist settlers, saying the occupying regime bears responsibility for the consequences of such acts of violence against holy Muslim sites.
In its statement, Hamas said the occupying regime should bear responsibility for the consequences of its decision to allow large-scale settler break-ins into the holy Islamic site at a time when it is waging a brutal aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.
The movement called on the entire Palestinians who can reach Al-Aqsa Mosque to do so and defend it in the face of the Zionist incursions and plots.
Hamas also urged the Arab and Muslim countries to urgently act and stand by the Palestinian people with all means possible until they achieve their goals of the liberation of Al-Quds and return to their homeland.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza, houses both the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Jewish visitation of Al-Aqsa is permitted, but according to an agreement signed between the occupying regime and the Jordanian government in the wake of the regime’s occupation of East Al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.