489 Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday morning under heavy protection from Israeli occupation police.
Eyewitnesses reported that the settlers entered in successive groups, carrying out provocative tours within the Mosque’s courtyards and openly performing provocative Talmudic rituals. These acts took place amidst a heavy deployment of Israeli occupation police securing the incursion.
The raid follows calls by extremist settler groups affiliated with the so-called “Temple Mount Organisations” urging supporters to carry out mass intrusions into Aqsa Mosque on the occasion of the upcoming Jewish holiday, Sukkot, next Monday.
These calls raise serious concerns about escalating violations against the holy site, which holds religious and political significance for the Palestinian people and the Islamic world as a whole.
The repeated incursions into Aqsa Mosque represent a blatant violation of the right to freedom of worship, as guaranteed by international covenants, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which enshrines the right to practice religion freely in places of worship without intimidation or coercion.
Moreover, these practices constitute a direct assault on the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem. Both the United Nations and UNESCO have confirmed that Al-Aqsa Mosque is an exclusively Islamic heritage site that must not be altered or subjected to Judaisation.
The Israeli police’s protection of settler incursions reflects an official policy aimed at imposing a new status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque, contravening the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which obliges an occupying power to preserve and refrain from altering religious and cultural sites.
These repeated incursions under official protection are a provocation to the sentiments of Palestinians and Muslims worldwide. They threaten to inflame tensions in Jerusalem and the wider West Bank. The international community’s continued silence in the face of such ongoing violations gives Israel a green light to continue its Judaisation policy and to undermine the religious and cultural rights of the Palestinian people.
