Israeli forces storm Al Aqsa mosque and attack people inside
Israeli forces were filmed storming Al Aqsa Mosque Compound and attacking dozens of people inside including old women and children. The attack happened in the early morning hours of April, 5 in the occupied city of Jerusalem, Palestine.
Israeli police say they were forced to enter the mosque because “masked agitators” had locked themselves inside. Video seems to show Israeli forces beating a group of people indiscriminately inside the mosque.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was prevented by Israeli forces from reaching the mosque, but that it had reports of several injuries.
✓ Hours after the attack, Israeli forces entered the compound again and were seen pushing Muslim worshipers in order to make way for an incursion of heavily guarded Jewish visitors.
Tensions are especially high during this Muslim holy month of Ramada, which this year coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover and the Christian holiday of Easter.
Following the attacks on Al Aqsa, two rockets from Gaza were reportedly fired in the direction of Israel, with one landing inside Gaza itself and the other hitting an open field near the border, according to Israeli forces.
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Six Palestinians injured, according to Palestinian Red Crescent
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said that at least six Palestinians have been injured by Israeli police who have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israeli forces are using stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas, videos emerging from the site are showing.
Israeli police storm Al-Aqsa Mosque for second night in a row
Armed Israeli police stormed the prayer hall of Al-Aqsa Mosque, attacking Palestinian worshippers for the second night in a row.
Videos from the holy site have begun to emerge, showing a scene reminiscent of the night earlier, when Israeli police armed with batons, tear gas grenades and smoke bombs, burst into the mosque and beat worshippers, including women.
Live: Israeli police attack Palestinians in Al-Aqsa Mosque again
- Israeli police have raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound using stun grenades and firing rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinian worshippers.
- Videos emerging from the site show armed troops forcibly emptying the mosque from worshippers.
Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa not confined to Ramadan: Palestinian journalist
The attacks on Al-Aqsa are part of systemic violence exercised by Israeli forces, and do not occur only during Ramadan, said Mariam Barghouti, the Palestine correspondent for the news website, Mondoweiss.
“The attacks on Al-Aqsa [don’t] just happen in Ramadan,” she told Al Jazeera. “They have happened on a nearly daily basis in the past year – Palestinian worshippers [are constantly being] attacked.”
“This comes less than 24 hours since Israeli forces invaded Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday in the evening.
“The assault is extending outside the walls of the old city. This is showing escalation and a promise of more violence.”
Israel has ‘no right whatsoever’ to interrupt prayer: Palestinian ambassador to UN
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, condemned Israeli action at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in a press conference on Wednesday, saying it is the “exclusive right of the Palestinian Muslims” to practice their religious traditions there.
“It is the right of the Palestinian Muslim worshippers to exercise their religious duties and prayers in this holy month of Ramadan, and in any other time in this holy Aqsa Mosque,” Mansour said.
“The Israeli occupying authority has no right whatsoever to tell people when to pray and when not to pray.”
Arab League holds emergency meeting, condemns Israeli action
The Arab League – a regional organisation of 22 member countries – is holding an emergency meeting on the raids at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Hossam Zaki, the league’s assistant secretary general, told Al Jazeera: “We lay the blame totally and squarely on the Israeli government.”
“We are going to work, politically and diplomatically, to expose what Israel has been doing,” he continued.
“It’s not that we need another excuse from the Israeli occupation forces to storm in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They never run out of excuses. They always tell you that there will be youth barricading, amassing guns and so on. We’ve heard it so many times. It is almost irrelevant at this point. This is a government that is bent on harming the Palestinian population.”
Raids on Al-Aqsa ‘a serious provocation’
Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, called the latest violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque a “very serious provocation that will definitely lead to an escalation”.
“And maybe that’s what the Israeli government wants,” he told Al Jazeera. “They want to distract attention from their internal divisions, from the demonstrations that are taking place inside Israel against this government, and they want to drag this whole region into an explosion.”
Barghouti blamed the violence, in part, on the appointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir as Israel’s minister of national security: “This Israeli government is using religion for nationalist causes.”
“This is unprecedented that the mosque would be attacked twice in the same day, people would be injured, elderly people would be attacked, children, women in the morning. And now preventing medical teams from reaching them,” he said.
Not ‘surprise’ violence has broken out: AJ correspondent
Speaking about the lead-up to the violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday, Al Jazeera correspondent Natasha Ghoneim said: “What we saw happening today was not in any way a surprise for those of us who covered this issue extensively.”
“On Tuesday, there were calls on social media by Hamas and others urging Palestinians to go to Al-Aqsa Mosque and, quote, ‘defend it from the occupiers’,” she explained.
“The reason this call was going out was Wednesday was Passover for Jews and there was expected, during visiting hours for non-Muslims, to be a greater number perhaps of Jews visiting the Al-Aqsa compound.”
These visits, she added, were a “very hot-button issue” for Palestinians.
“The Jews that tend to go into the compound are nationalists. They possess very conservative ideology. They are prohibited from praying inside the compound. But we do know that that ban has been violated on numerous occasions and that, again, is a real provocation to not only Muslims but all Palestinians.”
PA spokesman: Israeli raid into Al-Aqsa ‘slap to US efforts’ to establish calm
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has said, “Israel’s raid into Al-Aqsa mosque, its assault on worshippers, is a slap to recent US efforts which tried to create calm and stability during the month of Ramadan.”
Abu Rudeineh is referring to the summits held in the Egyptian and Jordanian towns of Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba respectively, where officials from the US, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan agreed on a series of steps to de-escalate violence in the occupied territories.
Acts in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound a ‘red line’
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier condemned the Israeli police raid overnight on Wednesday, calling such acts in the mosque compound a “red line” for Turkey.
“I condemn the vile acts against the first qibla of Muslims in the name of my country and people, and I call for the attacks to be halted as soon as possible,” Erdogan said.
“The name of this is the politics of repression, the politics of blood, the politics of provocation. Turkey can never remain silent and unmoved in the face of these attacks. Putting a hand on Al-Aqsa Mosque and trampling on its sanctity is a red line for us.”
Read more about how the world reacted to Israel’s attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israeli police clear Al-Aqsa Mosque of worshippers: AJ correspondent
Israeli police have cleared Al-Aqsa mosque of worshippers using rubber-coated steel bullets and teargas.
“The mosque has been cleared. There is no one any longer inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” said Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli authorities have claimed that some Palestinians “barricaded” themselves inside the mosque.
Traditionally, during Ramadan, Muslims stay up all night at mosques in a process known as “i’tikaf”.
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