Israeli forces restrict access to Al-Aqsa for Palestinians as fanatical Israelis storm the compound once again

As Israeli religious settlers continue to storm the Al-Aqsa compound, Israeli police forces persist in restricting Palestinians' access to the sanctuary.
MENA
4 min read
Qassam Muaddi
West Bank
28 September, 2022
Religious Israelis have been storming Al-Aqsa since Sunday on the occasion of the Hebrew New Year holidays. [Getty]

Israeli police continue to restrict access to the Al-Aqsa compound for Palestinians in Jerusalem, as Israeli settler groups stormed the sanctuary on Wednesday for the third day in a row.
 
Restrictions include limiting entry into Jerusalem's old city to Palestinians who live in it, banning access to the Al-Aqsa compound for Palestinians under the age of 40, and banning Palestinians from entering the sanctuary completely during the Israeli storming.
 
Israeli religious groups have been storming Al-Aqsa since Sunday on the occasion of the Hebrew New Year holiday.

According to the Islamic endowments department in Jerusalem, 335 religious Israeli settlers stormed al-Aqsa on Monday, some 283 on Tuesday and 133 on Wednesday. Israelis performed Jewish prayers in the compound and in its surroundings, provoking a rise in tensions in the city that resulted in street protests and confrontations with the police.

In the neighbourhoods of Sur Baher, Al-Tour, and Jabal Al-Mukaber, protests against the Israeli stormings of Al-Aqsa turned into violent confrontations between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police forces, with protesters throwing stones and fireworks at the Israeli police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.
 
The most violent confrontations, however, were reported in the town of Silwan, located at the foot of the Al-Aqsa sanctuary and Jerusalem’s old city. Silwan is one of Jerusalem’s most tense areas, due to the Israeli religious settlers' aggressions and takeover of Palestinian homes in the town.

"The occupation police forces closed the main entry to Silwan as well as two vital streets in the town, in order to secure the passing of Israeli settlers through Silwan into Al-Aqsa," Ameer Maragha, a lawyer and human rights activist based in Silwan, told The New Arab.
 
"Israeli religious groups consider Silwan part of the Jewish holy basin, and there are several Israeli settler pockets inside Silwan, which makes the situation even tenser," explained Maragha.
 
"In the past three days there have been confrontations of up to three hours each night, between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police forces in Silwan," he added.

"Israeli police threw tear gas in large quantities in all parts of Silwan, and no less than sixty people were treated of asphyxiation, including several children," the lawyer further noted, adding that "a fire was put down inside one house, after being caused by a stun grenade thrown by the Israeli police."
 
Meanwhile, community sources in Jerusalem reported that no less than 30 Palestinians have been arrested in the city in the past three days.
 
"Thirteen Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli police inside or in the surroundings of the Al-Aqsa compound since Monday," Jamal Abu Asab, spokesperson for the Jerusalem detainees' families' committee, told The New Arab.

"The rest were arrested in Al-Tour, Jabal Al-Mukaber and Silwan, and we haven't counted Wednesday's arrests yet," he added.

 Politically, the Palestinian foreign ministry warned in a statement on Tuesday against "the dangers of Israel's attempts to legitimise the space and time division of Al-Aqsa." 
 
The ministry's statement pointed out that "turning Jerusalem's old city into a military base is equivalent to its re-occupation, as well as the restriction of freedom of access to Al-Aqsa by age is a violation of the right to worship and an insult to millions of Muslims."

For its side, the Palestinian main opposition faction, Hamas, said in a statement that "the Al-Aqsa sanctuary faces the most dangerous aggression since its occupation [by Israel in 1967]."

 
The Islamic group described the Israeli storming of the compound as "the beginning of a new phase of the Judaisation of the Al-Aqsa mosque." Hamas called upon Palestinians "to strive to go to Al-Aqsa and be present and it to protect it."

Afternoon on Wednesday, new protests erupted in Jerusalem's sub-towns of Abu Dis and Qalandia, with Palestinian protesters attempting to break holes through the Israeli separation wall.
 
More calls to protest were voiced through mosque speakers in Jerusalem's towns of Shuufat, Al-Ram and Anata, and circulated on Palestinian social media, after the killing of three Palestinians in Jenin on Wednesday morning.

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