Al-Aqsa breaches threaten the calm

The storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli police and settlers threatened the fragile truce in the Palestinian territories, after mediators’ efforts to defuse the tension.

Early yesterday, the Israeli police and special forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and turned it into a military barracks, forcing the worshipers to leave it.

The police surrounded other detainees in Al-Qibli Mosque and Al-Qubba Mosque, amid violent confrontations and scenes of hit-and-run, which re-escalated the atmosphere after a relatively calm day, the day before yesterday (Saturday).

The violent confrontations, which lasted 4 hours yesterday, resulted in 19 injured and arrests, while the Palestinian factions said that the continuation of this situation means a comprehensive confrontation.

The Palestinians and Jordanians accused Israel of working to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque, spatially and temporally. The Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah II, called on Israel to respect the historical and legal status quo at the Al-Haram Al-Sharif – the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to stop all illegal and provocative measures that violate this situation and push a trend of aggravation.

In turn, the official spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said that what happened in the mosque is a rejected attempt to legislate the so-called temporal and spatial division of Al-Aqsa Mosque. “The Palestinians will not accept this temporal and spatial division, whatever the cost,” he added.

The escalation came after Israeli decisions to ease restrictions previously imposed on the Palestinians during the Passover holiday in an attempt to ease tension and pledges from Hamas that it would not enter into a war from the Gaza Strip, which is the beginning of a calm with which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas canceled the emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership, which Yesterday was scheduled to discuss the Israeli escalation.