Zionist Troops Attack Worshipers in al-Aqsa Mosque

Date: 19 February 2019 - 21:46

News ID: ۶۳۳۰۹

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Zionist troops have resealed one of the al-Aqsa Mosque's gates in the occupied old city of East al-Quds after a group of Palestinian protesters broke the lock and opened the gate for worshipers.
Palestinian Ma'an News Agency reported that Zionist troops had sealed off al-Rahma Gate (Gate of Mercy) with locks and iron chains and prevented the Palestinian worshipers from entering the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The agency said the move by the Zionist regime sparked clashes between Palestinian youths and the Tel Aviv regime forces, which resulted in the detention of five Palestinians, including a woman.
Firas al-Dibs, spokesperson of the Islamic Waqf (Endowment) organization, said Zionist troops had installed the locks and chains at the gate in response to members of the organization performing prayers at the gate last Thursday.
The al-Rahma Gate is a big building that lays to the east of the al-Aqsa Mosque.
The building was sealed by the regime’s authorities in 2003 as it was the headquarters of the Islamic Heritage Committee. The occupying regime claimed at the time that the building was being used for political activities.
In 2017, an Israeli court ordered that the building be closed until further notice.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said on Tuesday that 22 Palestinians were arrested in overnight raids across the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The 22 were arrested for "suspected involvement in popular terror and violent disturbances against civilians and soldiers," the army said in a statement.
The army often uses "popular terror" to refer to participating in protests, and hurling stones and explosives at Zionist troops and settlers.
The regime’s army frequently carries out raids in the West Bank and East al-Quds to search for what it says "wanted" Palestinians.
According to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, there were 5,934 Palestinians in the regime’s detention facilities, including some 50 women and 205 minors, by the end of December 2018.

Zionist troops clash with Palestinian protesters at al-Aqsa Mosque on February 18, 2019.