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Al-Aqsa raids escalate
Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday, entering in successive groups and conducting tours of its courtyards under tight security provided by Israeli occupation police.
The Jerusalem Governorate said the settlers chanted songs and slogans described as provocative inside the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Masrawy reported that a video clip showed dozens of settlers gathered inside the courtyards chanting provocative songs and slogans.
Masrawy also tied the latest raid to a broader pattern of violations, saying the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs reported that occupation forces had raided the mosque 26 times during the past June.
In the same report, Masrawy said 4,212 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque via Bab al-Maghariba during the morning and evening raid periods under the protection of Israeli forces.
The Quds News Network described the week as including intensified settler incursions into Al-Aqsa, with hundreds of settlers entering its courtyards under tight protection of occupation forces and performing Jewish rituals and provocative tours.
Voices condemn and warn
Ruhi Fattuh, head of the Palestinian National Council, warned that calls issued by Likud ministers and Knesset members during a conference organized by the so-called Temple Mount Administration to change the historical and legal status quo at Al-Aqsa amounted to a clear admission of the occupation government’s intentions.
In his statement, Fattuh said the calls to deny access to al-Aqsa if settlers were not allowed to perform their rituals there “constitute a clear admission of the intentions of the occupation government to undermine the Hashemite guardianship”.
Quds News Network also framed the week’s measures as unprecedented, saying the occupation forces “evacuated worshippers from the Qibli Prayer Hall” and conducted drills inside Al-Aqsa premises.
The same Quds News Network account described the expulsion of Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, the Friday preacher of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, from the mosque for a week following his arrest after the Friday sermon in which he called for the martyrs and prisoners.
Al-Ekhbariya News Agency, meanwhile, reported that settlers performed Talmudic rituals in several courtyards of the mosque under the protection of occupation forces deployed to secure the raid.
Plans, projects, and risk
Quds News Network said the escalation was part of a policy aimed at imposing new facts on the holy city, describing settlement expansion, demolitions, and seizure of land alongside arrests and raids targeting residents and religious figures.
It reported that occupation authorities advanced a plan to establish a settlement with 450 housing units in the Am Leshon neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem and also decided to turn the Giv’at Ze’ev settlement into a city, granting it administrative powers and additional budgets.
On the ground, Quds News Network described Israeli forces raiding the Qalandia refugee camp north of Jerusalem and installing a steel barrier atop the West Bank separation barrier in the town of al-Ram to raise its height and tighten restrictions on Palestinian movement.
In a separate warning, Ruhi Fattuh said turning the conflict into a religious conflict is the most dangerous objective of the occupation government because it “opens the region to waves of new instability, tension, and wars”.
He urged the international community, the U.S. administration, the United Nations, UNESCO, and states that uphold international law to act immediately to halt these plans and compel Israel to respect the historical and legal status quo in occupied Jerusalem.
