Al-Aqsa security guards foil attempt by Israeli occupiers to storm mosque

Security guards at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday foiled an attempt by Israeli occupiers to storm the compound and perform an animal sacrifice.

A widely circulated video on social media showed occupiers heading toward Al-Aqsa Mosque, jumping over an Israeli police barrier on the road leading to Bab Hutta, one of the mosque’s gates.

The footage shows mosque security guards rushing to close Bab Hutta, thwarting the attempted incursion.

The Palestinian Wadi Hilweh Information Center said in a statement that the occupiers “were carrying a live sacrifice in an attempt to bring it into the mosque compound.”

It added that the “sacrifice” refers to an animal offering that extremist Temple groups seek to introduce and slaughter inside Al-Aqsa.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli police or the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem on the incident.

Israeli police have allowed occupiers to enter the Al-Aqsa compound daily since 2003, except on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem has repeatedly called for a halt to such incursions, without response from Israeli authorities.

Palestinians say Israel has for decades intensified measures aimed at Judaizing occupied East Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and erasing its Arab and Islamic identity.

Palestinians consider occupied East Jerusalem the capital of their future state, based on international resolutions that do not recognize Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967 or its annexation in 1980.