WEST BANK (Dispatches) – More than 200 illegal Zionist settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Al-Quds under the protection of the occupying regime’s police, authorities said Wednesday, Anadolu reports.
Anonymous sources from the Islamic Endowment Department said 217 illegal Israeli settlers raided the holy site.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center, a local rights group, said 124 settlers stormed the mosque in the morning, and 93 broke into the site later in the day.
The settlers performed Talmudic rituals within the courtyards under the protection of Zionist troops, the Wafa news agency in Palestine reported.
The settler raid came after the reopening of the mosque following 12 days of it being closed due to a state of emergency that the regime implemented during its attacks on Iran.
The occupying regime began allowing Israeli settlers to enter the Al-Aqsa compound in 2003, despite objections from the Islamic Endowment Department.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. 
Israel occupied East Al-Quds during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
Meanwhile, Zionist troops killed three men after intervening to protect settlers during a violent assault on a Palestinian town near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The incident began at around 7pm when over 50 Zionist settlers descended on Kafr Malik from a recently established outpost between the town and al-Mazra’a al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah.
The settlers set fire to parts of three homes and completely torched four vehicles.
As residents gathered to confront the attackers, Zionist troops stormed the town and began firing live ammunition. 
Three men were killed and at least seven others were wounded, local officials said.
Jihad al-Qaq, a resident of Kafr Malik, told Middle East Eye that the settlers had targeted the southern part of the town. 
“When residents gathered in large numbers, they surrounded the settlers, who were armed and began shooting at us,” he said.
“The army then stormed the town to protect them and opened fire on the residents. All injuries were to the upper body, showing that soldiers intended to kill or seriously injure,” Qaq added.
Emergency medical crews were reportedly blocked from reaching the wounded. Residents had to use private vehicles to transport the casualties to ambulances stationed outside the town.