More Than 3,000 Settlers Storm al-Aqsa as Ben-Gvir Leads Incursion
Israeli flags raised and the national anthem sung in the mosque's courtyards, as worshippers are barred from dawn prayers and Palestinian officials warn of a push to divide the site
Thousands of Israeli settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday to mark the anniversary of what they call the destruction of the Temple, in incursions carried out under the protection of Israeli occupation forces.
The Islamic Endowments Department in occupied al-Quds said 3,228 settlers entered the mosque compound during the morning alone. Inside the courtyards, they chanted the Israeli anthem before the Dome of the Rock and raised Israeli flags.
Israeli police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took part in the incursion, accompanied by Likud Knesset member Amit Halevi — who raised an Israeli flag in the courtyards — and fellow lawmaker Nissim Vaturi. Occupation forces imposed tight military restrictions around the Old City and the mosque’s gates, preventing large numbers of Palestinian worshippers from reaching the compound; only a limited number were able to perform the dawn prayer before forces assaulted several of them.
‘The exclusive right of Muslims alone’
The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in al-Quds condemned the raid as a blatant violation of the sanctity of Islamic holy sites and a serious assault on the mosque’s historical and legal status. Exploiting Jewish occasions to intensify incursions and perform Talmudic rituals inside al-Aqsa, it said, forms part of a systematic scheme to divide the mosque through temporal restrictions, spatial allocation, and administrative takeover imposed as a fait accompli.
“The blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its total area of 144 dunams, is the exclusive right of Muslims alone and cannot be divided or shared,” the ministry said, warning that such provocations, pursued at the highest levels of the Israeli government, risk igniting a religious war across the region. It called on the international community and UN institutions to press the occupation authorities to halt their violations, urged Arab and Muslim states to take a decisive stand, and renewed its appeal to Palestinians to maintain a continuous presence at the mosque to thwart plans targeting its Islamic and Arab identity.
A shift from fringe to official policy
The al-Quds Governorate described Ben-Gvir’s entry as a dangerous escalation and a blatant breach of the historical and legal status quo. Occupation forces, it said, deployed in large numbers inside and around the compound, thinning the presence of worshippers and guards, while settlers performed Talmudic rituals — donning tefillin, carrying out prostrations in the eastern part of the mosque, and chanting prayers aloud — as “Temple groups” sought to bring the number of intruders to around 5,000 over the course of the day.
Ben-Gvir’s participation, the governorate said, marks a dangerous shift from attacks by extremist fringe groups to the official adoption of these practices by the Israeli government itself, aimed at consolidating control over al-Aqsa and undermining its Islamic status. It affirmed that the mosque, in its full 144 dunams, is an exclusively Islamic place of worship, and that any attempt to alter its identity or legal status is null and illegitimate.
Hamas also condemned the storming, calling the incursions a dangerous escalation and blatant aggression aimed at Judaising al-Aqsa as part of a project to establish complete control over it. Warning against the exploitation of Jewish occasions to expand settler presence in the courtyards, the movement said Palestinians and the resistance “will not stand idly by in the face of the desecration of holy sites.”
Raids and settler attacks across the West Bank
The developments at al-Aqsa came amid continuing violence across the occupied West Bank. Settlers attacked a Palestinian home in the Bedouin community of al-Tibna, near Khan al-Ahmar east of occupied al-Quds, smashing windows and damaging the contents. Armed settlers stormed Palestinian-owned land in the village of al-Tuwani, seized two water wells south of al-Khalil, and destroyed and took control of the sole main water pipeline supplying the village of Birin and Khirbet al-Forn.
Israeli forces detained eight Palestinians, including a woman, during a raid on Jenin early Thursday, along with four from the towns of Seida and Allar north of Tulkarm, six from the Nablus governorate after raiding neighbourhoods and searching homes, and six more from the Bethlehem governorate.
Rights groups and Palestinian officials have repeatedly warned that the combination of settlement expansion, settler attacks, and killings by Israeli forces is deepening instability and intensifying pressure on Palestinians throughout the occupied territory.
Reference: Al-Mayadeen