Al-Aqsa Mosque has always been subjected to Israeli desecrations topped by the violent break-ins into the holy site that are usually accompanied by brutal attacks and arrests of Palestinian citizens.
On the 28th of September 2000 the then leader of the Israeli opposition Ariel Sharon along with a number of right-wing Israeli officials protected by 2000 military policemen stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque provocatively declaring that it would remain an Israeli zone.
Seven Palestinians were killed and 250 others were injured after being attacked during the raid while a number of Israeli casualties were recorded in the same incident. The escalation extended to include the West Bank 1948 occupied Palestinian territories and Gaza Strip sparking the Al-Aqsa Intifada (the second Intifada) which lasted until 2005.
During the second Intifada Israel killed 4412 Palestinians including 789 children according to the Palestinian Center for Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
On the third day of the Intifada Israel carried out one of its bloodiest killings by targeting 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durra who sought shelter behind a small concrete structure with his father in the Gaza Strip. Although his father Jamal was trying to shield him screaming at the soldiers to stop the Israeli bullets rained down on Muhammad and killed him.
Israel tried to put down the Intifada by assassinating Palestinian leaders such as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Dr. Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi and Ismael Abu Shanab in Gaza in addition to the Secretary General of the Popular Front Abu Ali Mustafa in the West Bank.
Unified Resistance
The second Intifada took on a military nature as the Palestinian resistance found it necessary to make Israel pay for its crimes and assassination of Palestinian leaders. The Palestinian resistance factions launched rockets and carried out shooting and tunnel operations.
In 2001 Palestinian resistance fighters assassinated the enemy’s Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze’evi in a hotel in Occupied Jerusalem. Moreover Palestinian fighters from all factions stood united against the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp and fought the heroic Jenin Battle in 2002. While 56 Palestinians were martyred and hundreds were wounded or arrested 26 Israeli soldiers were killed and hundreds were wounded. In one of the ambushes set up by the resistance 13 soldiers died at once.
The Al-Aqsa Intifada ended with the victory of the Palestinian resistance and the withdrawal of Jewish settlers and Israeli troops who protected them from the Gaza Strip which constituted a setback to the Israeli settlement expansion.
Non-stop Battle
Since the second Intifada began to wind down early in 2005 Palestinians have been warning about the outbreak of a third one due to the repeated Israeli violations of Palestinian lands and holy sites.
Last September Israel carried out 907 violations in addition to launching 276 raids on several towns and neighborhoods in Jerusalem according to a report issued by Europeans for Al-Quds in October 2022.
The report underlined that the Israeli occupation authority issued deportation orders from Al-Aqsa Mosque against 41 Palestinians while it allowed Jewish settlers to carry out 40 attacks against Palestinian civilians in Jerusalem.
One of the latest flagrant Israeli violations committed at the courtyards of Al-Aqsa is targeting the Palestinian young man Waleed al-Sharif during the holy month of Ramadan last April. Al-Sharif later was proclaimed dead after he was severely wounded by a rubber-coated metal bullet during the Israeli raid into the holy site.
On the other hand Palestinian resistance activities have been escalating in the West Bank and Jerusalem in response to the ongoing Israeli desecration of the holy site.
On the 11th of October 2022 a Palestinian resistance group calling itself the Lions’ Den declared responsibility for a shooting attack near Nablus city which resulted in the killing of an Israeli soldier affirming that it was in response to the Israeli escalating raids into the Al-Aqsa Mosque and violations in Occupied Jerusalem.
– Amna Shabana is a PIC writer.
