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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-brutalizes-worshippers-al-aqsa-second-night">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel brutalizes worshippers at al-Aqsa for second night</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Department of Islamic Awqaf in Jerusalem - April 5, 2023<br></div>
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<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2023-04/050423_jerusalem_awqaf_00_1.jpg?itok=tQ8D7RUX×tamp=1680729533" alt="" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="452" height="302"></span><p>Palestinian worshippers offer tarawih prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque compound on 5 April.</p><small>
<span>APA images</span></small><p>Israeli police
stormed Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque and forcibly removed worshippers from
its prayer hall and surrounding yards for the second night in a row
late Wednesday.
</p>
On Tuesday, Israeli occupation forces raided al-Aqsa mosque and
assaulted worshippers in shocking scenes recorded on video and widely
shared on social media, generating international condemnation.
<p>Images of Israeli police standing over Palestinians on the ground and
beating them with batons and rifle butts during Ramadan were
disturbingly similar to events at al-Aqsa that precipitated a <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-pictures-may-2021/33316">major confrontation</a> between Israel and resistance groups in Gaza during May 2021 that rippled throughout historic Palestine.
</p>
Israeli forces raided the al-Aqsa mosque compound late Tuesday – the eve of Passover, a Jewish holiday – following the <em>tarawih</em> evening prayers, evacuating worshippers from the yards of the holy site, <a href="https://pchrgaza.org/en/new-crime-in-occupied-jerusalem-pchr-strongly-condemns-al-aqsa-mosque-raid-arrest-of-hundreds-of-worshipers-and-depriving-them-of-freedom-of-worship/">according</a> to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
<p>Police attempted to evacuate a communal prayer hall in al-Aqsa mosque
but the hundreds of worshippers there refused and continued to pray in
observance of Ramadan customs.</p>
<p>The prayer hall was cordoned off for two hours before being stormed
via a mosque clinic, which was ransacked and damaged during the raid.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israeli forces fired teargas and rubber coated bullets
toward worshippers through the prayer hall’s upper windows, “filling the
mosque with smoke,” PCHR added.</p>
<p>Some worshippers tried to fend off the raiding forces by lighting
fireworks and throwing plastic chairs and police “responded by firing
more teargas canisters and rubber bullets.”</p>
<p>Police forced women out from the prayer hall and detained hundreds of young men.
</p>
Confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces ensued around
al-Aqsa following the raid and Israeli prevented worshippers under the
age of 50 from entering the mosque compound.
<p>Following dawn prayers on Wednesday, Israeli forces raided the compound yards, firing rubber-coated bullets at worshippers.</p>
<p>Police forcibly dispersed worshippers and prevented them from praying before accompanying Israelis to the holy site.
</p>
Some 400-500 Palestinians were arrested at al-Aqsa, according to PCHR.
<p>The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that Israeli forces prevented
its paramedics from entering the compound. Twelve injured persons were
treated outside of the compound, including a paramedic. <em>The New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/05/world/middleeast/aqsa-mosque-jerusalem.html">reported</a> that 37 Palestinians and two Israeli officers were injured during the raid.
</p>
Armed resistance groups in Gaza <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/cross-border-fire-gaza-after-israeli-police-raid-al-aqsa-mosque-2023-04-05/">fired several rockets</a>
towards Israel following the attack at al-Aqsa. Israel conducted
airstrikes against what it says were weapons production sites and fired
artillery shells into the territory.
<p>Both the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-security-council-to-meet-on-jerusalem-violence-in-4th-emergency-session-in-months/">UN Security Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/5/israeli-police-attack-worshippers-in-jerusalems-al-aqsa-mosque">Arab League</a> called for emergency sessions concerning the unprovoked police assault on worshippers, which occurred days after an officer <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/cover-suspected-israeli-police-killing-palestinian-jerusalem">shot and killed a Palestinian</a> at close range near the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.</p>
<p>Tor Wennesland, the UN secretary-general’s Middle East envoy,
condemned the “apparent beating” of Palestinians by Israeli police and
the “large number of arrests.”
</p>
Without naming Israel as the party responsible, the US Office of
Palestinian Affairs said that “violence has no place in a holy site and
during a holy season” and called for de-escalation.
The European Union put out an Arabic-language tweet expressing its “deep
concern” but has not issued a statement in English or Hebrew.
Sami Abou Shahadeh, the head of a Palestinian political party in Israel,
warned that the situation “will become more intense” over coming days
“as settlers are planning several incursions” into the al-Aqsa compound
during Passover.
So-called Temple activists – extremists who <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/these-are-israeli-leaders-who-want-destroy-al-aqsa/21166">seek the destruction of al-Aqsa mosque</a>
and its replacement with a Jewish temple – aim to change the fragile
status quo at the holy site by performing a Passover animal sacrifice.
<p><em>The Times of Israel</em> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-detain-several-people-seeking-to-carry-out-animal-sacrifice-at-temple-mount/">reported</a>
that police had detained “a number of people” near the al-Aqsa mosque
compound on Wednesday with “lambs or goats that they were suspected of
intending to sacrifice at the site for the Passover holiday.”</p>
<p>Videos of police stopping people and confiscating goats circulated on social media on Wednesday:
</p>
The publication added that on Sunday, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s
ultra-right national security minister, called on Jews to visit the holy
site during Passover “but not perform the ritual sacrifice, which he
has repeatedly called for allowing in the past and has even attempted to
perform himself.”
<p>One of Ben-Gvir’s advisers proclaimed last week that the judicial
overhaul put on hold by Netanyahu’s government will lead to a “Davidic
monarchy” similar to the United Arab Emirates.
</p>
On Monday, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-tweet-ex-pm-barak-seems-to-confirm-israel-has-nuclear-weapons/">took to Twitter</a>
to issue a warning over this theocratic vision held by elements in the
ruling coalition who seek a major escalation at al-Aqsa – referred to as
Temple Mount by Jews.
<p>“In conversations between Israelis and Western diplomatic officials,
there are deep concerns raised of the possibility that if the coup in
Israel succeeds, a messianic dictatorship — that possesses nuclear
weapons and fanatically wishes for a confrontation with Islam centered
on the Temple Mount — will be established in the heart of the Middle
East,” he stated.</p> <h3>
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