AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Scores of Zionist settlers on Wednesday forced their way into the al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East al-Quds, according to a Palestinian agency.
The Islamic Endowment Department in al-Quds said in a brief statement that 62 settlers broke into the flashpoint site guarded by Zionist troops.
Right-wing Zionist Rabbi Yehuda Glick was among the settlers who toured the site, the statement said.
Zionist troops began allowing the settler incursions in 2003, despite repeated condemnations from the Islamic Endowment Department in al-Quds.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims.
The Zionist regime occupied East al-Quds, where al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Zionist War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.
Meanwhile, Zionist settlers who constructed an unapproved outpost near Beita in the occupied West Bank said they have agreed to withdraw from the site.
Tensions in the occupied West Bank reached new highs in the past months with the Evyatar settlement being one of the focal points of clashes as settlers refused to evacuate the land and Palestinians demonstrated against their presence.
Several Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded by Zionist troops supporting the illegal settlers.
According to a statement on Wednesday by the Samaria Regional Council, a settlers’ organization, the Zionists are due to leave by Friday following a compromise offered to them by the occupying regime.
The Samaria Regional Council also reportedly said the settlement’s structures will not be demolished, but rather transformed into a base for the Zionist regime’s military – an outcome that is certain to anger Palestinian protesters who demand it be removed.
Amid the construction of the illegal settlement of Evyatar, four Palestinians were recently shot dead by Zionist troops as they protested against the theft of more than five acres (two hectares) of their land, which was previously used for the cultivation of olives.
In May, 34 Palestinians were killed – the highest monthly figure in 10 years – with the Zionist regime’s domestic spy agency, the Shin Bet, reporting almost 600 violent incidents.
Villages in the occupied West Bank often hold Friday demonstrations against land confiscation, house demolitions and Zionist settlements deemed illegal under international law. Zionist troops usually respond to the protests with disproportionate violence.
Human Rights Watch in a recent report said the Zionist regime is committing the “crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution” against Palestinians.