Far-right Israeli minister storms Al-Aqsa

Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem was stormed by hundreds of illegal Jewish settlers led by Israel’s extreme far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir this morning, Wafa has reported. The settlers entered the compound through the Maghrebi Gate with special guards and performed prayers and Talmudic rituals under the protection of the Israeli security forces.

“This place is important to us and we have to return to it and prove our sovereignty, ” claimed Ben-Gvir in a video message. “The unity of the nation of Israel is important.”

Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinian worshippers from entering the mosque to perform their morning prayers at Al-Aqsa and kept them in the Old City alleyways leading to the holy site.

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This was the third time that Ben-Gvir has entered the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa since taking office as national security minister in the far-right coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last December. He holds extreme views about the Palestinians and has called for their forced removal. Israeli Jewish settlers frequently storm the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinians accuse Israel of systematically working to Judaise East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, and obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity.

In response to the latest settler incursion, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and a prominent Imam in the mosque, condemned it as an attempt by the Israeli occupation authorities to impose even more control over the Islamic sanctuary.

“What happened today was an aggressive intrusion,” Sheikh Sabri told Middle East Eye. “We consider this to be a provocation towards Muslims. The occupation is trying to forcibly impose a new reality on Al-Aqsa and Ben Gvir’s statements are proof of this, but we will not give up our legitimate rights.”

He added that the current right-wing government in Israel is heading towards escalation. “It is carrying out these actions as a way to reduce the opposition it is facing [among the general public in Israel] and has been suffering from.”

Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is the third-holiest site in the world for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, and there are plans to knock the mosque and other Islamic buildings down, including the iconic Dome of the Rock Mosque, and build a temple in their place.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city illegally in 1980, in a move never recognised by the international community.

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