Violence as settlers storm Al-Aqsa for the third day running

The New Arab's live coverage of the latest from Israel's violence against worshipers in Al-Aqsa Mosque and compound concludes for today.

Join us tomorrow for the latest updates from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

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Jordan's PM hails Palestinian resistance at Al-Aqsa

The Jordanian prime minister commended on Monday Palestinian resistance to Israeli violations at occupied East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

In parliament, Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh declared: "I salute every Palestinian, and all the employees of the Jordanian Islamic Waqf, who proudly stand like minarets, hurling their stones in a volley of clay at the Zionist sympathisers defiling the Al-Aqsa Mosque".

The premier added that this had happened "under the protection of the Israeli occupation government."

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Calls for flag march counter-protest

Palestinians in Jerusalem have called for a counter-protest to a flag march that Israeli settler groups intend to hold on Wednesday.

The flag marches are carried out by extremist settlers who often chant provocative slogans and attack Palestinians and their property.

Israeli extremists on the march chanted racist slogans including "Death to Arabs" as they paraded through the Old City.

The march is meant to celebrate Israel’s capture of Palestinian East Jerusalem in the 1967 war, which Israel has occupied in violation of international law ever since.

Palestinian factions have previously denounced the march as a provocation and an insult.

Jordan's Ayman Safadi warns of regional uproar

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi told the US that the violence at Al-Aqsa needs to stop imminently.

In a phone call with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, he said the escalations at Al-Aqsa have the potential to affect the whole region and called for calm, according to Jordan's official news agency.

Blinken said Washington is committed to achieving stability in the region and reiterated support for the two-state solution as a way to resolve the conflict.

Israeli forces arrest teenager in East Jerusalem

Occupying Israeli forces raided the neighbourhood of Al-Tur in East Jerusalem and arrested a teenager identified as Samer Al-Qawasmi.

قوات الاحتلال تعتقل الشاب سامر القواسمي خلال اقتحامها بلدة الطور بالقدس المحتلة pic.twitter.com/sl2NiH3Iyr

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) April 19, 2022

Rights group condemns Israel's actions in Palestine

British organisation Friends of Al-Aqsa has deplored Israel's violence on Al-Aqsa Mosque, saying it 'represents the sheer brutality' of occupation.

"Israel’s bombing of Gaza last night follows weeks of intensified violence against Palestinians, including 4 attacks on the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in just 5 days", Friends of Al Aqsa Chairman, Ismail Patel, said in a statement sent to The New Arab.

"This violence represents the sheer brutality of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid in Palestine, which has continued for 74 years now. We call on our politicians to impose immediate sanctions on Israel. We must all speak up and take action for Palestine." 

Israeli forces storm school in Nablus, injuries increase

Occupying Israeli forces stormed the As-Sawiya School in the village of Al-Lubban in Nablus. The secondary school, which has seperate buildings for boys and girls, is regularly targeted by Israeli forces and is often raided by the army and subjected to teargas attacks and forcibly shut down.

Palestinian students are regularly detained, attacked, intimidated and persecuted by Israeli forces. 

The school is considered a security zone by the Israeli army because it is situated on road that leads to nearby settlements. Locals have repeatedly said the army carries out school attacks to deter Palestinians from going near it.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent said the number injured around the occupied West Bank city of Nablus has increased to 79.

Eleven have been shot with with rubber bullets, two journalists suffocated with tear gas.

#صور |
مصادر محلية: قوات الاحتلال تقتحم مدرسة الساوية بقرية اللبن الشرقية قضاء #نابلس pic.twitter.com/yR2ouQHRNd

— فلسطين بوست (@plespost) April 19, 2022

Palestinians injured in Nablus rises to 50

The number of Palestinians injured in the West Bank city of Nablus has risen to at least 50, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. 

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets at Palestinians in order to secure a provocative activity for settlers marching to the evacuated output of Homesh in Nablus.

Thousands of settlers started gathering in the north of the West Bank to walk to Homesh, near the villages of Burqa and Bazaria.

Homesh was evacuated in 2005, but Palestinian residents in the area continue to suffer settler violence.

Analysis: Israeli undercover elite

The Mista'arvim are an elite Israeli undercover unit whose operatives disguise themselves as Palestinians or Arabs to gather intelligence, infiltrate protests, and carry out assassinations.

The undercover unit predates the Israeli state and was originally part of the Jewish Palmach, an elite division of the Haganah 

Click below for information from The New Arab's analysis section

Islamic Jihad threatens Israel

Khaled Al-Batsh, a member of the Islamic Jihad's political bureau warned Israel's incursions on Al-Aqsa will lead to further escalations.

"Al-Aqsa Mosque is in real danger and the whole region will enter into escalation if the occupation implements its plans", he said in a statement.

Over 2,000 settlers invade Al-Aqsa

At least 2,275 settlers participated in the incursions of Al-Aqsa Mosque since Friday, according to a spokesperson for the Jewish Settlement associations.

They recorded 853 Israeli settlers took part in Tuesday's storming of the holy site, a larger estimation than the Islamic Endownment which recorded 622 settlers by the mid-morning of Tuesday.

Assaf Farid, a spokesperson for the Settlement Movement released a statement calling for a return to the Temple Mount and enabling Israelis to enter the courtyards of Al-Aqsa. 

Two teenagers arrested in Jerusalem

Occupying Israeli forces have arrested two Palestinian teenage boys at Bab Al-Absat, also known as Lion's Gate, in occupied East Jerusalem.

The boys have not yet been identified and no immediate reason for their arrest was given.

Israeli forces continue to harass Palestinians in East Jerusalem and outside Al-Aqsa Mosque after withdrawing from the courtyards at noon, local time.

مصادر محلية: قوات الاحتلال تعتقل فتيين من منطقة باب الأسباط بالقدس المحتلة. pic.twitter.com/YiF27SpN4z

— وكالة الرأي (@alrayps) April 19, 2022

Dozens injured in Nablus as settlers march to outpost

At least 32 Palestinians are injured in Burqa, northwest of Nablus, as Israeli settlers backed by occupying forces march to the evacuated outpost of Homesh.

Out of the injured Palestinians, 25 of them were suffocated by teargas, the Palestinian Red Crescent has announced.

Settlers preparing to march to Homesh

Settlers have begun marching near the village of Burqa, Nablus District as they prepare to take part in a settlement march in the evacuated Homesh outpost.

The march is expected to have 10,000 attendees and the army will provide them security, backtracking from the initial plan of refusing to protect the demonstrators. 

Homesh was evacuated in 2005, but Palestinian residents in the area continue to suffer settler violence.

تغطية صحفية: "مستوطنون ينتشرون قرب قرية برقة قضاء نابلس قبيل المشاركة في مسيرة استيطانية في بؤرة حومش المخلاة". pic.twitter.com/wW9KqKHsoz

— الجرمق الإخباري (@aljarmaqnet) April 19, 2022

Raed Salah arrives at Al-Aqsa

The leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel Sheikh Raed Salah arrives at the courtyard of the Dome of the Rock.

Salah in February entered Al-Aqsa for the first time in 15 years, ending a long absence from the Muslim holy site forced by Israeli expulsion and imprisonment.

Salah's visit to the holy site, which has long been at the centre of tensions between Palestinians and Israeli forces and settlers, was delayed for a short while when Israeli police stopped him at Jerusalem's Lion's Gate.

Salah, 65, was released in December after being jailed in Israel's Megiddo prison for allegedly "inciting terrorism against the Israeli government". 
 

🛑 الشيخ رائد صلاح يصل إلى صحن قبة الصخرة المشرفة في هذه الأثناء. pic.twitter.com/2eIfaBxWvs

— الرسالة للإعلام (@Alresalahpress) April 19, 2022

Islamic Endowments: 622 settlers storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Department of Islamic Endowments in occupied East Jerusalem said in a statement that the number of Israeli settlers who stormed the mosque Tuesday has now reached to 622.

The incursions took place in groups of dozens of settlers who were guarded by Israeli police.

Israeli settlers are who decide on the scale of violence during attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the police give them the protection they need, Jamal Amru, a Palestinian researcher on Jerusalem affairs, told The New Arab's West Bank correspondent Qassam Muaddi.

تغطية صحفية: " قوات الاحتلال تعـ.ـتدي على المـ.ــرابطات في صحن قبة الصخرة بالمسجد الأقصى" pic.twitter.com/xEQJzyRDiF

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) April 19, 2022

Arrests in Bethlehem and Jerusalem

Israeli forces arrested the father of Arkan Muzher, a 15-year-old boy from the Dheisheh refugee camp in southern Bethlehem who was killed in 2015.

They arrested well as the freed prisoner Hani Bisharat from the city of Bethlehem, and arrested another young man from a town west of Bethlehem, along with a young man arrested from the town of Hizma in East Jerusalem.

Settlers storm Al-Aqsa for the third day

Anonymous guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque told The New Arab's Arabic-language service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that 75 settlers in two groups stormed the mosque in early raids until 8am. The incursion is currently still taking place.

Israeli forces evacuated the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque from Muslim worshipers to allow settlers to storm Al-Aqsa, roam its courtyards, and perform Talmudic rituals and prayers there.

The incursions came as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid claimed that Jordan is an occupying power that maintains the status quo of the mosque.

Jordan serves as custodian of holy places in east Jerusalem and in recent weeks stepped up talks in an effort to avoid a repeat of last year's violence.