Hordes of extremist Israeli settlers, protected by heavily armed occupation forces, stormed the blessed Aqsa Mosque on Monday morning and again in the afternoon, while Muslim worshipers faced severe restrictions on their entry.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that dozens of settlers, escorted through the Maghariba Gate, roamed provocatively across the courtyards of Islam’s third holiest site. Guided by radical rabbis, the settlers performed Talmudic rituals and staged provocative dances inside the Mosque compound — a direct insult to Muslim feelings and a serious desecration of the sacred site.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces tightened their suffocating restrictions against Palestinian worshipers, blocking many from entering the Mosque to perform their prayers, further entrenching the apartheid policies systematically imposed across Occupied Jerusalem.

In an escalation of provocation, the occupation authorities have blanketed the streets of East Jerusalem and the Old City with Israeli flags in preparation for the Zionist regime’s so-called "independence day" — a painful reminder for Palestinians of the Nakba (Catastrophe) and the ongoing theft of their homeland.

Adding fuel to the fire, extremist settler groups announced plans to raise the Israeli flag inside the Aqsa Mosque compound on May 1st — a brazen act that Palestinians warn could ignite a major confrontation.

The storming of Al-Aqsa and the continuing violations against Palestinian worshipers are part of the occupation’s deliberate attempts to assert control over Jerusalem and erase its Islamic and Arab identity, but Palestinians remain steadfast in defending their holy sites and their right to freedom of worship. (ILKHA)