RAMALLAH (Dispatches) -- At least one Palestinian student has been wounded by Israeli fire and four others were arrested as Zionist forces stormed Birzeit University near Ramallah on Monday.
A group of undercover agents, known as Mustarebeen, entered the university’s campus from the northern gate and fired live bullets at the students, Birzeit University said in a statement posted on Facebook.
They opened fire to keep students away as they made their arrests, wounding two people, according to Palestinians news agency Wafa.
A video shared by local Palestinian media shows Ismail Barghouti, one of the arrested students, receiving treatment in a hospital after the raid.
The other four students that were arrested are Qassam Nakhleh, Abdel Hafez Sharbati, Walid Harazneh and Muhammad al-Khatib, according to Wafa. They are active members of the university’s student union.
Birzeit University condemned the “blatant attack” and called on international and human rights groups to protect educational institutions. It added that its lawyer is now working to learn the condition of the “kidnapped students”.
The occupying regime of Israel’s military claimed in a brief statement that while carrying out an arrest of a “wanted Palestinian” in Birzeit, the man tried to escape “so the force shot him and wounded him”.
Several Palestinian groups have condemned the raid.
Hamas said in a statement that the Zionist special forces “committed a new crime by infiltrating the Birzeit University campus and shooting the students”.
“We strongly condemn the occupation forces’ pursuit of the student union movement, the kidnapping of students, and the storming of universities,” the group said.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) called the raid “a barbaric Israeli incursion” in a statement released to local media, and called for “the protection of students and academic institutions”.
Separately, Zionist authorities blocked the appointment of new Palestinian security guards at the Al-Aqsa compound in occupied East Al-Quds’ Old City, threatening Palestine’s Al-Quds Islamic Waqf with arrest if they refuse to comply.
Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the mosque’s veteran Palestinian imam, said that the Waqf, a religious trust that administers the Al-Aqsa compound, needs new guards as there have been no new appointees to oversee the sacred esplanade since 2017.
Usually, the Waqf nominates a list of names of guards and sends it to Jordan’s Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs for approval. Jordan acts as a custodian of the sacred compound in Al-Quds as part of a joint agreement with the Zionist regime.
However, this time Israeli authorities have objected to the procedure, saying that the Waqf in Al-Quds should run the list by them first before final approval of the new security staff.
The Waqf urgently needs new security to oversee the compound and maintain the safety of crowds during Muslim prayers.
It has refused to comply with the Israeli request, saying that Tel Aviv has no say or sovereignty over matters inside the Al-Aqsa compound.
Sabri said that the occupying regime of Israel’s internal intelligence, the Shin Bet, will be tasked with examining the list, and that it threatened to arrest the new guards if its demands were not met.
According to Sabri, guard numbers at Al-Aqsa have diminished in the past year, due to death, retirement or resignation.
He said the Zionist regime’s actions were an attempt to impose “sovereignty over Al-Aqsa and end the role of the Islamic Waqf in Al-Quds... Israel considers itself as the guardian of Al-Aqsa and above Jordan in the matter of appointments.”
The occupying regime maintains a security presence at Al-Aqsa’s gates, with members of its military police standing behind metal barriers, occasionally examining Palestinian
 IDs before deciding whether or not to allow them to enter the compound.
The Zionist regime has full control over the Morrocan Gate, in the southwest corner of Al-Aqsa compound, which leads to the Western Plaza.
Omar al-Kiswani, the Al-Aqsa mosque manager, told Jordan’s Radio al-Balad that Jordan’s ministry of foreign affairs and the ministry of Awqaf are aware of the issue, but declined to comment further.
Kiswani said the Islamic Waqf is expecting the new guards to start their roles in the next 24 hours.
Israel occupied East Al-Quds during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move not recognized by the international community.
The Old City of Al-Quds and the Al-Aqsa complex remain the most sensitive components of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.