The ban on visits by Israeli ministers and parliamentarians was first imposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last October as tensions at the site began escalating into a months-long wave of stabbing, vehicle ramming and shooting attacks, and violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
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Israel captured the area surrounding the complex, East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Six Day War, but left the compound under the administration of a Jordanian-Palestinian-led Islamic Waqf (Islamic Trust).
Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa al-Barghouti has said that the Israeli raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque during the last ten days of Ramadan are a “dangerous incitement” that will arouse anger in Palestinians and Muslims, PalSawa.com reported on Monday.
He called on the global community to hold Israel accountable for their actions and to pressure Israel to comply with worldwide conventions as an occupying force responsible for protecting religious sites.
Despite this, hundreds of Israeli forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday and Monday as Ramadan entered its final ten days, evacuating Muslim worshipers to allow right-wing Jewish Israelis to tour the compound freely.
Police arrested 16 people after an elderly woman was slightly injured.
Al-Samri said that large numbers of police forces deployed on Tuesday across occupied East Jerusalem and around Al-Aqsa in particular to “maintain public order”.
She added Israeli police officers “suppressed the stone throwers using riot dispersal means”.
Palestinians are angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, saying the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the sacred site. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, where they believe the Prophet Muhammad embarked on a night journey to heaven, while Jews refer to it the Temple Mount, where the two Jewish temples stood in biblical times. Visits by Jews are permitted but worship is strictly forbidden.
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Despite the fact that the site is the location of al-Aqsa Mosque, hundreds of Jewish extremists regularly attempt to legalize prayer at the compound, a move that will “inevitably” trigger Palestinians, said Israeli police, according to the Palestinian Info and News Agency (WAFA).
