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Thousands of Jewish nationalists have begun a controversial annual flag march that will prowl the streets and alleys of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.
The march will enter the Old City from Bab al-Amud and Hebron, and then meet in the square of the Western Wall, which the Jews call the Western Wall, where the participants will commemorate the memory of Israel’s control of Jerusalem after its occupation of East Jerusalem in the June 1967 war.
In response to the Israeli flags march, a Palestinian flag-raising march took place on Salah El-Din Street near Bab Al-Sahira in the city of Jerusalem.
The Israeli security forces are trying to break up the march by firing tear gas, rubber bullets and sound bombs.
Tension had escalated in occupied East Jerusalem after hundreds of Israeli Jews stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Islamic Times in Jerusalem said that 1,044 Jews, including settlers in the occupied West Bank, entered the mosque’s courtyards before noon on Sunday.
The Palestinian presidency accused Israel of “extreme recklessness” by allowing settlers to storm the mosque.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, in the weekly mini-ministerial meeting, that the march will proceed according to the planned path, and that raising the Israeli flag in Jerusalem is a “natural right.”
Bennett added that “Jerusalem will never be divided.”
The political advisor to the Palestinian Foreign Minister, Ahmed al-Deek, responded, saying that Bennett’s statements regarding Jerusalem “constitute a perseverance from the head of the political hierarchy in Israel to continue its open war on Jerusalem, its citizens and its sanctities in the worst forms of colonialism and racism.”
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said that sovereignty in the Al-Aqsa Mosque “will remain purely Palestinian”, and that any Israeli attempts to control it are “illusions and lost calculations.”
Israel has deployed hundreds of police forces in the Bab al-Amud area, which leads to the Old City of East Jerusalem, to secure the arrival of the flag march, organized by ultra-right-wing Jews, to the area.
The Israeli police closed all roads leading to Bab al-Amud and allowed only residents of the Old City to enter. All shops inside the Old City were also closed, despite the merchants’ dissatisfaction with the closure decisions.
The Israeli forces detained dozens of Palestinian worshipers inside the al-Qibli prayer hall and closed the doors with chains and locks. She said she took this measure to “prevent friction” between the intruders in the chapel and the intruding Jews.
picture released, Getty Images
Itamar Ben Gvir, an extremist Israeli Knesset member, stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, accompanied by dozens of Jewish settlers, under the guard of the Israeli police.
Video footage showed Palestinians trapped inside the prayer hall throwing chairs and other items from windows at the Israeli police.
Reports say that the Israeli police arrested 13 Palestinians who were in Al-Aqsa Mosque and a number of others during clashes that erupted in the vicinity of Bab Al-Amoud area.
According to the director of Al-Aqsa Mosque Omar Al-Kiswani, more than 400 Israeli Jews have entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque since the early hours of the morning.
Among them was the far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir, who stormed the courtyard of the mosque, accompanied by a number of settlers, under the guard of the Israeli police.
“playing with fire”
The Jews performed Talmudic rituals during their entry to Al-Aqsa on the eastern side of the courtyards of the Haram and in front of the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall and the Dome of the Rock, before leaving the squares from the side of the Mughrabi Gate, according to what showed video clips from inside the courtyards of the mosque.
picture released, Getty Images
The Israeli police forces closed the Al-Qibli prayer hall in Al-Aqsa Mosque to the worshipers in it.
“Israel is playing with fire irresponsibly and recklessly by allowing settlers to desecrate sanctities in occupied Jerusalem and escalate the killings,” Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque squares. It called on the international community and the US administration to “break their silence and assume their legal and moral responsibilities towards Jerusalem and its sanctities, respect their declared positions and translate them into practical measures and put pressure on Israel to stop the persecution of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Hamas said, in an official press statement, that “the Israeli forces preventing Palestinian worshipers from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque and suppressing them and attacking the Almoravids who were present inside it will not give it any alleged sovereignty over any inch of the mosque, which will remain purely Islamic.”
The leader of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Khader Adnan, confirmed on Sunday that what is required is “greater than an intifada to confront the incursion of Al-Aqsa Mosque,” and warned that “turning back on what is happening in it gives the occupation a decision to destroy and blow it up.”
The preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, had called on “every Palestinian to do his best to reach the mosque by all means,” and said that “it is necessary to mobilize to confront the settlers’ incursions into the mosque’s courtyards.”
picture released, Getty Images
A march of Palestinians in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip condemning the storming of the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Jewish extremists.
The Palestinian presidency had warned Saturday of the consequences of allowing the holding of the flag march in the city of Jerusalem.
The Fatah movement called for “confronting the march and the ribat in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and intensifying the raising of Palestinian flags in the alleys and streets of the Old City.”
She said, “The sight of raising the Palestinian flag has become a knot for the Israelis, as it expresses Palestinian sovereignty over the occupied city.”
The organizers of the flag march had asked the Israeli authorities to allow them to enter the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, but they did not agree to their request to enter the mosque complex, which is considered a hot spot.
picture released, Archyde.com
Israeli forces assault a Palestinian youth before his arrest near Bab al-Amud, which leads to the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel considers Jerusalem, with its western and eastern parts, its “eternal united capital”, while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a state that they aspire to establish in the currently stalled peace process.
The clashes that took place in Jerusalem last year as this occasion approached, led to the outbreak of an 11-day military conflict that began with Hamas firing rockets at Israel in response to the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Jewish extremists. The Israeli army responded with devastating air strikes.
This war resulted in the killing of 260 Palestinians, including 66 children, while on the Israeli side 14 people were killed, including one child.
In Gaza, a massive march was launched in Khan Yunis, in the south of the besieged Gaza Strip, where participants raised Palestinian flags and condemned the storming of extremist Jews into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
On Friday, the United Nations Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wencesland, appealed to “all parties to exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid another violent conflict that will only take more lives.”
“The message of the international community is clear, which is to avoid such escalation,” he said.