A horde of Jewish settlers on Thursday morning desecrated the Aqsa Mosque’s courtyards under police protection despite the alleged lockdown imposed on the holy city and its residents.
According to local sources 14 settlers entered the Mosque through al-Maghariba Gate and toured its courtyards under police escort.
The settlers also performed Jewish prayers during their tours at the Islamic holy site.
Earlier in the morning dozens of police forces defiled the Aqsa Mosque and patrolled its courtyards with no known reason.
In this regard Jerusalemite activist Hinadi al-Halawani expressed her belief that what happens every day at the Aqsa Mosque confirms that the lockdown is only intended to serve the Israeli occupation’s plots against the holy site.
Halawani also condemned the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) in Jerusalem for allowing Jewish settlers and extremists from outside the holy city to defile the Mosque while preventing Muslim worshipers who live a few meters away from their Islamic holy site from reaching it.
On Wednesday morning Israeli surveyors escorted by police forces took measurements of the Aqsa Mosque’s courtyards and plateaus using land surveying equipment.
This was the first time the IOA dared to send surveyors to the Aqsa Mosque to map its courtyards.
Such development took place after the IOA recently imposed a lockdown on the holy city at the pretext of preventing the spread of coronavirus.
While preventing Muslim worshipers from entering the Aqsa Mosque the Israeli police have been facilitating the entry of Jewish settlers to the holy site since the first day of the lockdown.
The IOA also embarked recently on carrying out excavations in al-Buraq Square and near al-Maghariba Gate of the Aqsa Mosque.
The Islamic Awqaf Administration in Jerusalem believes that the IOA and its police in Jerusalem have been using the alleged lockdown to impose new faits accomplis on the ground at the Aqsa Mosque.
For long years the IOA have been persisting in gradually imposing its control over the Islamic holy site which is under Jordan’s Hashemite custodianship.
According to international law Jordan’s Jerusalem Awqaf and Aqsa Mosque Affairs Administration has exclusive jurisdiction over the management of the Aqsa Mosque with its 144 dunums of land premises courtyards walls and gates.
