1,589 Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem last week, the Jerusalem Governorate, while groups advocating for the alleged “Temple” called for intensifying the incursions.
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The governorate said in a statement that settlers and Knesset members stormed the mosque courtyards daily during the morning and evening periods, under heavy protection from the Israeli police.
The governorate added that settlers “exploited the occasion of the so-called Hebrew New Year to perform Talmudic prayers and form circles for dancing, clapping and singing, as well as prostrating and lying down collectively on the eastern side of the mosque courtyards, near the Dome of the Rock.”
She continued: “Settlers also stormed the Cotton Merchants’ Market adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the eve of the occasion, chanting songs and making disturbing noises to harass the Jerusalemites.”
Calls to intensify raids
Sources in Jerusalem, said that the so-called “Temple” groups are seeking to mobilize the largest number of settlers to carry out large-scale incursions into the mosque at the beginning of next December, on the occasion of the Jewish “Festival of Lights”.
The sources added that these groups “are calling for an attempt to bring in the Hanukkah menorah (a nine-branched Jewish menorah that is lit during the Jewish Festival of Lights), and to light it inside the courtyards of the mosque or at its doors, and to intensify public prayers and Talmudic rituals.”
The “Festival of Lights” lasts for 8 days and usually falls in December or late November, according to the Hebrew calendar.
These groups seek to exploit it annually to impose new realities at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
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