WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Zionist settlers on Sunday stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of Al-Quds under the protection of the regime’s troops, with the Palestinian Foreign Ministry warning the occupying regime against the settlers’ increasing atrocities.
The Islamic Endowment Department in Al-Quds said in a statement that the settlers entered the compound through the Moroccan Gate, also known as the Mughrabi Gate, on Sunday morning, Palestine’s official WAFA news agency reported.
They performed provocative tours at the site.
Zionist legislators and settlers regularly storm Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied city, a provocative move that infuriates Palestinians. Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of Tel Aviv-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the Zionist police in Al-Quds.
The Jewish visitation of Al-Aqsa is permitted, but according to an agreement signed between the Zionist regime and the Jordanian government in the wake of the regime’s occupation of East Al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.
Last May, frequent acts of violence against Palestinian worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque led to an 11-day war between Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip and the Zionist regime, during which the regime killed at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children.
Palestinians want the occupied West Bank as part of their future independent state and view Al-Quds’ eastern sector as the capital of their future sovereign state.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates held the Zionist regime “fully and directly” responsible for settlers’ practices in the West Bank and warned of dire consequences.
The ministry called on the UN Security Council and the United States to take necessary measures to stop the occupying regime’s “crimes and violations” against Palestinian people.
It noted that the regime as the occupying power must adhere to international will for peace and legitimacy in order for the credibility of international institutions to be preserved.