LONDON: Over the past 12 months, at least 58,310 Israeli settlers have stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, a 14 percent increase on the number the previous year, according to the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.
It recorded the significant increase in incursions between Oct. 2, 2024, and Sept. 22 of this year. In recent weeks, hundreds of settlers have entered Al-Aqsa Mosque to mark various Jewish holidays, including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, which began on Oct. 6 and lasts for a week.
The Awqaf reported that in September, Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound 26 times, with protection from the Israeli police and occasionally accompanied by officials and ministers.
In the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in the West Bank, the Awqaf reported that Israeli forces prevented the call to prayer 92 times in September, as part of attempts to impose temporal and spatial division.
The ministry added that these practices seriously infringe on the sanctity of Islamic religious sites, creating a new reality in Jerusalem and Hebron.
It said that performing Jewish rituals inside Al-Aqsa Mosque provokes the feelings of Muslims, and attempts to alter the identity of Jerusalem and its Islamic holy sites.
It urged the international community to intervene to stop these violations, the Wafa news agency reported.
