Israeli occupation forces arrested five Palestinians and confiscated wooden partitions and shoe racks in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound’s historic Al-Rahma Gate on Wednesday.
Onlookers were threatened with arrest and prevented from filming to document the Israeli attack, Palestinian news agency Safa reported.
Moreover, five Palestinians were rounded up from the Al-Rahma Gate prayer area and taken to the police station by the Old City’s Lion’s Gate.
Israeli occupation forces arrested five #Palestinians and confiscated wooden partitions and shoe racks in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound’s historic Al-Rahma #Gate yesterday.
Onlookers were threatened with arrest and prevented from filming t … https://t.co/xOAmMMqvLd#AlRahma pic.twitter.com/amRVrFwE8T— ⓵ⒷⓊⓋ ??? (@_1BUV) October 10, 2019
This invasion comes after hundreds of Jewish settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound yesterday morning from the Al-Mughrabi Gate under Israeli police protection.
“Around 159 Jewish settlers have entered the compound,” the Religious Endowments Authority, the Jordan-run agency responsible for overseeing the city’s Muslim and Christian holy sites, said in a statement.
The Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Omar Al-Kiswani told Safa: “There is a clear incitement by Israel, and a systematic program to change the reality in Al-Aqsa and impose a new reality in it by armed force.”
شرطة الاحتلال تقتحم مصلى باب الرحمة داخل المسجد الأقصى وتزيل القواطع الخشبية وخزانة الأحذية pic.twitter.com/kGrf1bTEox
— وكالة شهاب (@ShehabAgency) October 10, 2019
It was also reported that there has been a “marked escalation” in the frequency of visits by Israeli Jews and “extremist calls to storm Al-Aqsa during the Jewish holidays amid tight restrictions imposed by the occupation authorities on the Palestinians.”
Al-Rahma Gate (Gate of Mercy), a large hall that is part of the bigger Al-Dhahabi Gate (Golden Gate), was closed off with chains and locks by Israeli forces in 2003 during the Second Intifada.
#Watch | Zionist settlers storm al-Aqsa Mosque Compound celebrating Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement. pic.twitter.com/yu2UyY6gnR
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 8, 2019
In February this year, hundreds of Palestinian worshippers protested against the closure and entered Al-Rahma Gate, reopening its gates and praying in it.
Israel responded by arresting around 60 Palestinians from their homes and detaining the Head of the Jerusalem Waqf Sheikh Abdel Azeem Salhab and his deputy Sheikh Najeh Bkeirat.
(Middle East Monitor, PC, Social Media)
