Fanatical Israeli settlers, headed by a Knesset member, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Thursday, performing Talmudic rituals and provoking worshippers under heavy Israeli police protection.
The latest attack on Islam's third holiest site coincides with Israel’s annual " Flag Day ," or "Jerusalem Day," which commemorates the Israeli capture of East Jerusalem and the West Bank on 15 May 1967.
Israel captured the areas from Jordan during the Six-Day War and has since expanded settlements across the occupied territory . Around 700,000 Israeli settlers now live in settlements in the occupied territories.
The commemoration usually sees settlers march through Jerusalem's Old City—part of East Jerusalem—verbally and physically harassing Palestinian locals.
Al-Aqsa's compound is frequently stormed by the settlers, often accompanied by ultranationalist ministers like Itamar Ben-Gvir. Knesset Member Ariel Kellner of the ruling Likud Party led Thursday's intrusion.
Jewish prayers inside the complex are restricted under a long-standing status quo which Israel's far-right government has sought to change.
The Jerusalem Governorate said more than 200 settlers stormed the site and performed full-body prostration rituals. It said Israeli police barred men under 60 and women under 50 from entering the mosque since dawn.
Several men and women were reportedly pushed and beaten by security forces at the mosque gates.
Worshippers, staff from the Islamic Waqf Department, and Sharia school students were forced to remain inside the mosque to prevent them from accessing the courtyard, clearing the compound for settlers.
In the Old City, Israeli forces ordered shopkeepers to close their businesses throughout the day as part of security measures to facilitate access to the mosque and "Flag Day" marches scheduled for the evening. West Bank attacks continue Settlers carried out several attacks across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday evening into Thursday morning, with reports of arson, forced evacuations, and stone-throwing incidents that left one Palestinian and one foreign activist injured.
In the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian farmland on Wednesday evening. As residents attempted to extinguish the flames, Israeli forces raided the village, firing illumination flares and tear gas at homes, according to witnesses.
Hassan Malihat, head of Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights, said settlers forced a Bedouin family of seven to leave their area west of Al-Auja in Jericho in the Jordan Valley on Thursday morning.
Malihat said the family had previously been displaced from Furush Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, before being forced to relocate again, this time to the northern Jordan Valley.
Activist Osama Makhamra said a Palestinian man and a foreign activist were injured Wednesday evening in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, after settlers threw stones at a Palestinian home, injuring the homeowner's son.
The European Union approved a new wave of sanctions targeting Israeli settlers and organisations linked to violence against Palestinians in the West Bank earlier this week. Violence has spiked in the territory since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza in 2023.
Under international law, Israel's occupation of the West Bank is considered illegal, as are all Israeli settlements built on occupied territory.