Occupied Jerusalem, Jan. 19 (Petra) - Dozens of Jewish settlers on Monday stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif compound, under heavy protection by Israeli occupation police.

The Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem said in a statement that more than 286 extremist settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque during the morning incursions through the Mughrabi Gate, where they performed Talmudic and provocative rituals in its courtyards, under heavy guard by Israeli occupation police, which sealed all the mosque’s external gates to secure the incursions by extremist settlers.

Separately, the Israeli occupation municipality in occupied Jerusalem on Monday notified residents of the Al-Bustan neighborhood in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, of its intention to seize one dunum and 100 square meters of the neighborhood’s land, under the pretext of establishing a "landscaping and parking" project.

The head of the occupation municipality claimed in the notice that these areas are classified as "vacant land" under the Local Authorities Law of 1987.

Palestinian sources, in a statement, warned that this measure represents an exposed legal maneuver clearly aimed at preventing citizens from using their land or seeking permits for it, especially after a series of systematic demolition operations that have recently targeted the area, stressing that the occupation seeks to create a "legal" cover for a process of land seizure and silent ethnic cleansing.

//Petra// AF