Occupied Jerusalem, May 15 (Petra)-- Extremist Jewish settlers stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound/Al-Haram Al-Sharif in occupied Jerusalem on Friday under the protection of Israeli occupation police, according to the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem.

In a statement, the department said dozens of hardline settlers entered through Bab Al-Asbat (Lions’ Gate) and performed Talmudic rituals and provocative acts inside the compound while Israeli police imposed tight restrictions around the mosque.

Israeli forces reportedly closed Bab Al-Asbat to worshipers arriving for Friday prayers and also shut the King Faisal Gate, one of the entrances to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Earlier, the Jerusalem Governorate warned of a campaign led by so-called "Temple Mount organizations," in coordination with political figures within the Israeli government, to facilitate the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday.

The governorate said the move coincides with what Israelis mark as "Jerusalem Day" and described it as a dangerous escalation aimed at altering the historical and legal status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque and imposing unprecedented measures affecting the sanctity and religious significance of the site.

It stressed that choosing Friday a day on which settler incursions into the mosque compound are usually prohibited reflects clear intentions to impose a new reality by force, in what it described as an unprecedented step since Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem in 1967.

//Petra// MF