OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (The Palestinian Information Center) Around 300 Israeli settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque on Monday morning through the Maghariba Gate, under heavy protection from Israeli occupation police forces, as part of activities marking the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
The raids included blowing the shofar inside the courtyards of the Mosque, in an attempt to impose Talmudic rituals and create new Judaization realities at the holy site.
Since early morning, the Israeli police imposed strict security measures across occupied Jerusalem, setting up military checkpoints throughout the Old City and restricting Palestinian worshippers’ access to al-Aqsa.
According to the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem, settlers carried out provocative tours inside the courtyards, performing rituals linked to the so-called “Temple” in the eastern area of the Mosque.
These included chanting, clapping, and blowing the shofar, while occupation forces tightened restrictions at the Mosque’s gates and throughout the Old City.
Israeli police had earlier announced special security arrangements for the Jewish holidays, which officially begin on Tuesday, confirming that settler raids on al-Aqsa would increase during this period.
The latest incursion was carried out in response to calls by extremist settler groups, which urged their followers to storm al-Aqsa between September 22–24 in record numbers to entrench Jewish rituals inside the holy Islamic compound.
Observers warned that these repeated incursions are part of a systematic campaign to erase Jerusalem’s Islamic and historical identity, distort the historical narrative, and undermine Muslim sovereignty over the Mosque, paving the way for further assaults on its sanctity.
Al-Aqsa has been subjected to near-daily assaults by settlers and Israeli police forces, excluding Fridays and Saturdays, with morning and evening groups entering under police escort. These measures form part of attempts to impose temporal and spatial division of the holy compound.
Since the beginning of the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank in October 2023, thousands of settler raids have been carried out at al-Aqsa under Israeli police protection protection, alongside intensified restrictions on Palestinians entering the Mosque and the Old City.
