JERUSALEM: Scores of Israeli settlers forced their way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday, according to a Palestinian agency.
In a statement, the Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department, which oversees the holy sites in Jerusalem, said 127 settlers entered the complex under police protection for the first time in three weeks.
According to eyewitnesses, Israeli police barred Palestinian youths from entering the site since dawn and imposed restrictions on the entry of worshippers into the complex.
Six people, including four mosque guards, were detained by Israeli police, the Islamic Waqf Department said.
The department earlier said that 50 Israeli settlers had stormed the site.
Meanwhile, the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, Moshe Gafni, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep the flashpoint compound closed to Jewish visitors, according to the KAN channel.
Separately, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Sunday warned that Israeli settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem risk undermining efforts to maintain a cease-fire between Palestinians and Israel and revive the peace process.
The continued settler incursion “amount to a disregard of efforts aimed at stabilizing the calm and reviving the peace process,” a ministry statement said.
The ministry condemned “the Israeli restrictions and siege on the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem and the repression of its residents,” warning that the Israeli violations jeopardize the cease-fire and revival of the peace process.
Tension escalated across the Palestinian territories since last month over an Israeli court verdict to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem in favor of settlement groups. The situation flared up after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque and assaulted worshippers inside.
The tension spread to the Gaza Strip, with Israel launching airstrikes that killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, and injured more than 1,900 others. Health authorities in the West Bank have separately confirmed 31 were killed in the occupied territory, totaling 279 across all Palestinian territories.
12 Israelis were also killed in Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The fighting, the fiercest in years, came to a halt on Friday under an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the “Temple Mount,” saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Since 2003, Israel has allowed settlers into the compound almost on a daily basis.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
PALESTINE URGES US INTERVENTION TO STOP ISRAELI PROVOCATIONS:
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday called on the US administration to intervene to stop Israeli provocations in occupied East Jerusalem.
In statements cited by the official Wafa news agency, PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, “Israeli support to extremist settlers amount to a blatant disregard of Arab and international efforts to stop the [Israeli] aggression.”
He warned that “Israeli restrictions and siege on the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem and the continued raids of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound could drag the situation back into escalation and tensions.”
Abu Rudeineh held Israel responsible for sabotaging US and Egyptian efforts “to stabilize the cease-fire and prepare for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip”.
ISRAELI ARMY ARRESTS 23 PALESTINIANS IN WEST BANK RAIDS:
Israeli army forces rounded up 23 Palestinians in overnight raids across the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said on Sunday.
The NGO, however, did not give details about the accusations leveled against the detainees.
There has been no comment from the Israeli military on the report.
The NGO said last week that more than 1,800 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Arab towns inside Israel since mid-April.
Meanwhile, the Prisoner Society said two Palestinian detainees maintained their hunger strike for the 19th consecutive day in protest of their prison conditions and administrative detention, a policy that allows Israeli authorities to hold Palestinians without charge or trial.
Around 4,400 Palestinians are estimated to be held in Israeli prisons, including 39 women, 115 children and 350 administrative detainees, according to Palestinian rights groups.
