AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime has allowed 180 settlers to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque, the largest number ever permitted by the regime authorities.
On Wednesday, dozens of worshippers were seen entering the site, referred to as Temple Mount in Judaism, flanked by occupying regime forces.
The move marks a departure from the regime’s previous policy of allowing no more than 30 Zionists at a time into the site, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 war and is recognized as occupied territory internationally.
Thousands of Zionists could be seen dancing and celebrating at the Lions’ Gate entrance to the Old City of Al-Quds. Muslim worshippers were prevented from entering the mosque.
Aouni Bazbaz, director of international affairs at the Islamic Waqf, the organization that administers Al-Aqsa Mosque, told Middle East Eye that the scenes on Wednesday - and in the previous days - had been unprecedented.
“These are frightening scenes,” he said.
Bazbaz added that the total of settlers who entered the site in 2003 stood at 258, while “the numbers have risen exponentially” today, with thousands making their way into the complex.
“Today [as the Islamic Waqf], we will be dealing with something we have never ever dealt with before,” he said.
The Chief Rabbinate of Al-Quds has long declared Jewish worship on Temple Mount forbidden unless worshippers are “ritually pure”, which is believed impossible under modern conditions.
However, many Orthodox Jewish settlers oppose this stance, arguing that preventing them from worshipping there is discriminatory.
Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said that “the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed and will not change”, referring to a 1757 Ottoman decree reaffirming a ban on non-Muslims entering Al-Aqsa Mosque and granting Jews the right to pray at the Western Wall.
However, in recent years, visits by Zionist settlers to the site have become increasingly routine.