AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Over 500 Zionist settlers, accompanied by troops and members of Knesset, broke into Al-Aqsa compound in Al-Quds during the holiday of Sukkot on Wednesday, the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported.
According to Wafa, 529 Zionist settlers entered Al-Aqsa compound through the Moroccan Gate on the western side of the site, which the occupying regime’s authorities have controlled since the beginning of the occupation of East Al-Quds and the West Bank in 1967.
Wafa said that the settlers, flanked by Zionist police, performed prayers and toured the site.
Zionist far-right activists have repeatedly pushed for an increased presence at Al-Aqsa, despite a longstanding joint guardianship agreement between the Zionist regime and Jordan, which retains custodianship over Christian and Muslim holy sites in Al-Quds and bars non-Muslim prayer at the site.
Al-Quds’ Islamic Waqf has repeatedly described the settlers’ tours as “provocative” and said that Palestinian worshippers and guards at Al-Aqsa feel uncomfortable with the presence of the occupying regime’s police and settlers touring the Muslim holy site.
Naser al-Hidmi, the head of the Al-Quds Authority Against Judaization, told local media that the Zionist regime uses the season of holidays to speed up its settlement plans around the Old City and Al-Aqsa mosque.
“Unfortunately, every coming year is more difficult and worse for Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa, in terms of Israel’s violations and the practices of the occupation that increased in brutality and became more cruel and painful, amid Arab and Islamic silence and inaction regarding what is happening,” Hidmi said.
Zionist settler groups regularly enter the Al-Aqsa compound - which they refer to as the Temple Mount - during religious holidays. They are currently celebrating the Sukkot, which ends on 27 September.
Settlers backed by Zionist troops regularly break into Al-Aqsa Mosque to tour around the Dome of the Rock and perform prayers on the site.
Some right-wing Zionist activists have advocated for the destruction of Al-Aqsa mosque compound to make way for a Third Temple.