OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Israeli police officers stormed the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall at the Aqsa Mosque compound during the Friday prayer yesterday.
According to Jerusalem affairs researcher Ziyad Abhais, the move is aimed at establishing a new fait accompli at the holy site and asserting Israeli control over it.
In social media remarks, Abhais said the police raid was part of Israeli efforts to reshape the situation at the Aqsa Mosque along two lines. The first, he said, is to establish what Israel presents as its sovereignty over the site, using a range of measures, including deploying armed patrols among Muslim worshipers during prayers.
The second, he added, involves an Israeli plan to seize the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall and turn it into a focal point for enforcing spatial division within the Aqsa Mosque compound.
Abhais noted that the Israeli police refuse to recognize Bab al-Rahma as a prayer hall and continue to expel worshipers and mosque guards from the site.
Abhais also said that police officers continue to defile the prayer hall without removing their shoes, a practice he described as part of efforts to enforce a new situation on the ground at the Aqsa Mosque.
The researcher stressed that countering these measures requires maintaining a constant Muslim presence in and around the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall and building on the efforts launched seven years ago to protect the site.
