Rania Abushamala<\/p>\n
23 July 2026\u2022Update: 23 July 2026<\/p>\n
Around 1,300 Israeli occupiers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday morning as they marked the Jewish holiday of Tisha B\u2019Av, commemorating what they call the \u201cdestruction of the Temple,\u201d according to the Jerusalem Governorate. <\/p>\n
The governorate said on Facebook that Israeli police allowed the number of occupiers entering the compound in each group to increase to around 150. <\/p>\n
Israeli forces imposed tight restrictions at the mosque\u2019s gates and around Jerusalem\u2019s Old City, deploying heavily across its courtyards and preventing Palestinian worshippers from entering, it added. <\/p>\n
Only a very limited number of Palestinians managed to reach the mosque for dawn prayers before Israeli forces assaulted several worshippers and other residents, the statement said. <\/p>\n
The governorate said occupiers \u201cperformed Talmudic rituals during the incursions, including wearing tefillin, carrying out full prostrations in the eastern section of the compound and chanting loudly.\u201d <\/p>\n
It added that \u201cextremist groups advocating the construction of a Jewish temple at the site were mobilizing supporters in an effort to bring 5,000 occupiers into the compound\u201d during Thursday\u2019s incursions. <\/p>\n
The Jerusalem Governorate condemned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir\u2019s storming of the compound as a \u201cdangerous escalation\u201d and a \u201cflagrant violation\u201d of its historical and legal status quo. <\/p>\n
It said the move was part of \u201csystematic targeting of Islamic holy sites\u201d and attempts to impose new realities at the mosque. <\/p>\n
The governorate said Ben-Gvir\u2019s participation, alongside incursions by occupiers and groups advocating the construction of a \u201cJewish temple\u201d at the site, marked a \u201cdangerous shift\u201d from attacks by extremist groups to the Israeli government\u2019s official adoption of such actions. <\/p>\n
It warned that the violations could have repercussions for regional security and stability and urged the international community and international institutions to act to halt them. <\/p>\n
The governorate stressed that the entire 144-dunam (35.6-acre) Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is \u201can exclusively Islamic place of worship,\u201d saying any measures aimed at changing its identity or historical and legal status are \u201cinvalid and illegitimate.\u201d <\/p>\n
Likud party lawmaker Amit Halevi also stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Thursday morning. <\/p>\n
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world\u2019s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews refer to the area as the Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times. <\/p>\n
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rania Abushamala 23 July 2026\u2022Update: 23 July 2026 Around 1,300 Israeli occupiers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-555359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}