Palestinian Gov’t Denounces Settler Threat to Al-Aqsa

Date: 19 April 2025 - 23:10

News ID: ۱۳۸۶۳۸

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Palestinian government has expressed “extreme concern” over threats circulating among Zionist settler organizations to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates warned on Saturday of calls by Zionist settler organizations circulating on Hebrew-language social media platforms to attack and demolish the mosque and construct a temple in its place.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Al-Quds, Islam’s third holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian identity, has become symbolic of the intensified tension amid the occupying regime’s war on Gaza.

An Al-generated video depicting the destruction of the mosque and construction of the “Third Temple” under the title “Next Year in Al-Quds,” was published on the platforms earlier this week.

In a statement published on X, the ministry said it considers the posts on social media a “systematic incitement to escalate the targeting of Christian and Islamic holy sites in occupied Al-Quds”.

“The Ministry calls on the international community and its relevant UN institutions to deal with this incitement with utmost seriousness, and to take the measures required by international law,” it said.

Armed Settlers Storm Village, Damage Palestinian Property

Meanwhile, armed illegal Zionist settlers stormed the Bedouin village of Ras Ein al-Auja, north of Ariha in the occupied eastern West Bank on Saturday, attacking Palestinian-owned property, according to eyewitnesses and human rights groups.

Hassan Mleihat, coordinator of the al-Baydar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, said armed illegal settlers in groups entered the village with herds of sheep, grazing them near Palestinian homes, damaging property, and trying to stop residents from reaching their lands.

“Settler attacks on Bedouin communities have sharply escalated and now target every aspect of Bedouin life,” Mleihat said.

In the northern Jordan Valley, illegal settlers also stole water pumps and destroyed crops in Khirbet al-Deir, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.

The Jordan Valley is in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank and falls under the Tubas governorate.

Since the start of the Zionist regime’s war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, illegal settlers have set up 60 illegal outposts across the occupied West Bank, including 51 since the start of 2024, according to the Palestinian government’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

Violence by illegal settlers has forced 29 Palestinian communities to flee between Oct. 7, 2023, and the end of 2024. The commission said 311 families – around 2,000 people – were displaced.

Tension remains high across the occupied West Bank, where at least 952 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,000 injured since the Gaza war began in October 2023, Palestinian data show.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that the Zionist regime’s occupation of Palestinian land is illegal and ordered the removal of all settlements in the West Bank and East Al-Quds.