Israeli police announced this Wednesday that they entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem to “force out agitators” who entered the premises with “fireworks, sticks and stones.”
The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas, which is in power in the Gaza Strip, condemned the “unprecedented crime” and called on Palestinians in the West Bank to “come en masse to defend the mosque.” The Islamic Jihad movement made the same call.
“Tonight, as the police were working to allow large numbers of Muslims to celebrate the month of Ramadan and reach the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, several youths and agitators entered the mosque. [Al-Aqsa] fireworks, sticks and stones,” the Israeli police said in a statement.