Israeli forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem Friday morning, attacking worshipers with rubber bullets, tear gas, and live ammunition, resulting in the injury of over 150 Palestinians, and the arrest of at least 400 more.
Thousands of Palestinians had gathered at the Al-Aqsa Mosque early in the morning for fajjr (dawn) prayers, when armed Israeli troops stormed the compound and began attacking worshipers.
Videos from the compound taken by worshipers and journalists showed Israeli forces firing sound bombs, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas inside the compound and the mosque, which is the third holiest site in Islam.
Footage showed dozens of worshipers taking cover in the mosque as sound grenades and other weapons exploded inside the prayer hall.
Videos taken by witnesses inside the ancient Qibli prayer hall showed Israeli forces smashing the historic stained-glass windows, and subsequently stationed snipers who pointed their rifles down into the prayer hall.
Other videos showed Israeli police beating worshipers inside the mosque, as well as journalists who were covering the events inside the compound. One Palestinian journalist, identified a Nasreen Salem, was reportedly injured after she was hit in the head with a rubber bullet.
Palestinian photojournalist Rami al-Khatib was filmed being targeted and brutalized by a group of armed soldiers in the compound.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 152 injured worshippers were transferred from the the Mosque to nearby hospitals, while dozens of other injuries were treated in the field. According to PRCS injuries were due to rubber bullets, sound grenades and assault.
Palestinian youth responded to the attacks by throwing stones at the armed forces.
Other videos showed Israeli forces detaining dozens of Palestinian men and youth inside the mosque, laying them down on their stomachs and tying their hands behind their backs with zip ties.
Other footage showed lines of hundreds of Palestinians detainees being loaded onto buses outside the Old City. According to the Committee of Families of Jerusalem Prisoners, Israeli forces arrested at least 400 worshipers from Al-Aqsa this morning.
The Palestinian, Turkish, and Jordanian Foreign ministries condemned the attacks, and called on Israel to stop its escalations at the site.
Friday’s raids and attacks are similar to those that Israel conducted during Ramadan last year. The aggressions in May 2021, coupled with Israel’s assaults and eviction efforts in Sheikh Jarrah, sparked widespread protests by Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territory, and eventually set off the war in Gaza, that killed 256 Palestinians, including 66 children.
Radical Jewish groups were calling on Jews to make ritual Passover sacrifices at Al-Aqsa these year. Looks like they got their ritual sacrifice after all! Only it wasn’t lambs, but Arab worshipers treated like sacrificial animals instead.
Western media is also watering down and whitewashing the flagrant abuse, violations, and flimsiest of pretenses that Israel used to carry out this unjustified and disgusting attack on thousands of innocent worshipers, and trying to paint it as a “both sides” issue!
This is NOT a “both sides” issue! If armed Palestinian or a Jordanian security forces and snipers barged into the Kotel and started firing teargas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, and live rounds, while thousands of Jews were preparing to worship during a Passover, because a few dozen of them were carrying Israeli flags and causing trouble, Israel and the rest of the world would completely lose its collective shit and there would be a scorched earth campaign across the land.
If Palestinians radicals called for sacrificial rituals to be carried out at the Western Wall with the offer of cash, the Western media would go nuts! If Palestinian religious or political leaders forced their way to the Western Wall using armed guards to pray, the Israeli forces would have a conniption and they’d leave in a body bag. Yet Israel does this multiple times a year now with barely a word of condemnation from anyone in the West, outside of the usual “both sides need to exercise restraint” schtick. Fuck that! One side IS exercising restraint and honoring the exclusive sovereignty of the other side’s holiest site, while Jewish Israelis routinely violate and desecrate the sovereignty of Al-Aqsa so often that it’s barely even news anymore.
Are the Israeli Jews stupid? Could be. Unchecked power makes you stupid.
Or are they deliberately trying to incite the Palestinians with the one thing — an attack on them as Muslims — that they cannot ignore?
It is almost an ugly habit now for the zionists to provoke these worshippers by storming the Mosque during their Holy month, just to be able to start a massacre in Gaza, or just to harass them.
Why the hell can’t they stay away from this place AT LEAST during these Holy days, and give them some space. Can’t they keep a distance away from the AL AQSA Mosque, and show some basic decency by allowing them to worship? How would they feel if people of another religion stormed into their synagogues and desecrated it? Won’t they send precision bombs in retaliation? They would be howling with outrage and being dramatic about it.
Israel is under the notion that because they control the area, they own this disputed Holy place.
They are trying everything, even excavating under the Mosque, to claim ownership. Strange how disputed lands, Holy places, and other places, automatically belongs to Israel, when International entities do NOT recognize it as theirs.
There was a time when I thought, Jews don’t do those things. That was a long time ago.
Oh, the horror. Out of the clear blue and for absolutely no reason at all the “Zionists” chose to attack a large group of peaceful worshipers minding their own business.
Good thing they had predeployed those piles of rocks and had rioters on standby.