Israeli forces attack worshippers in violent Al-Aqsa Mosque raid

Israeli forces brutally assaulted dozens of Palestinian worshippers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday night and forcibly removed them from the site where they were peacefully observing the holy month of Ramadan. 

Dozens of heavily armed officers stormed the site, used stun grenades and fired tear gas into the Qibli prayer hall – the building with the silver dome – where hundreds of men, women, elderly people and children were staying overnight to pray. Some eyewitnesses said rubber-coated steel bullets were also fired. 

Confrontations between residents and police broke out in several locations across the city. 

A resident of the Old City, who preferred not to give a name, told Middle East Eye that the sound of screams during the raid could be heard everywhere.

“Jerusalem is on fire right now. You can hear the sound of grenades everywhere,” he said. “We can hear ambulances all over the city, the situation is not reassuring.”

In the occupied West Bank, hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets to condemn the assault and confront Israeli troops at checkpoints and army posts. Rallies also took place in Gaza, Umm al-Fahm (a Palestinian town in Israel) and the Jordanian capital Amman.

Rockets were later fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. At least one rocket landed inside the country and caused damage to a food factory, according to Israeli media.

This was followed by air strikes from the Israeli military targeting several locations in the besieged strip. No casualties were recorded from either side.

Shootings at Israeli targets in the wake of the raid were also reported overnight in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm, Hebron, Ramallah and Jericho, leading to some armed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops. One Israeli soldier was wounded in a fire exchange in Hebron and transferred to a hospital for treatment, Israeli media outlets reported. 

Israeli forces closed the Old City and Al-Aqsa after the raid. The mosque was briefly reopened for dawn prayer at around 5 am local time but police denied access to anyone under the age of 40.

After dawn prayer, Israeli forces once again dispersed worshippers and forced them out of the mosque to pave the way for settler incursions that began at around 7am. 

‘All they had were prayer mats’

The initial raid started around 10pm on Tuesday when police officers were first spotted entering Al-Aqsa. 

They began by removing people from the courtyards of the mosque. Dozens of worshippers had stayed there to practise Itikaf after tens of thousands attended the earlier Taraweeh night prayer. 

Itikaf is a non-mandatory religious practice that is common in Ramadan whereby worshippers stay inside mosques overnight to pray, reflect and recite the Quran.

While those seated in the courtyards were being removed, dozens of other worshippers locked themselves inside the Qibli prayer hall to evade the Israeli crackdown. 

Around an hour later, Israeli police broke the windows of the Qibli mosque and fired tear gas and stun grenades at worshippers to force them out while the power inside the building was out. They then managed to break into the mosque and started assaulting worshippers.