Dozens of extremist Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday morning and again in the afternoon, entering under the heavy protection of occupation police who simultaneously restricted Palestinian access to the holy site.

The Islamic Awqaf Administration reported that groups of settlers were escorted through the Maghariba Gate — the only entrance controlled exclusively by Israel — where they roamed the courtyards of the mosque compound in coordinated tours led by rabbis advocating the so-called “Temple Mount” narrative.

Witnesses said several settlers performed open, provocative Talmudic rituals, particularly in the eastern zone of the compound and on the steps leading toward the Dome of the Rock plateau, a move Palestinians view as an intentional escalation aimed at changing the religious status quo.

While settlers were allowed full freedom of movement, occupation police tightened restrictions on Muslim worshipers at all gates of Al-Aqsa. Many Palestinians, including regular worshipers and Jerusalem residents, were barred from entering the mosque altogether — part of recurring Israeli practices that rights groups say constitute collective punishment and a violation of religious freedom.

Local Palestinians condemned the incursions as part of Israel’s ongoing campaign to Judaize Jerusalem and erode Muslim control over one of Islam’s holiest sites. Palestinian religious authorities warned that the repeated settler invasions, combined with growing police repression, threaten to spark further unrest in the occupied city.

The latest assault comes amid rising settler violence across the occupied West Bank and continued attempts by extremist groups to impose temporal and spatial division at Al-Aqsa Mosque, a move Palestinians reject as an attack on their heritage, identity, and sovereignty in Jerusalem. (ILKHA)