OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)
Dozens of extremist Jewish settlers desecrated the Aqsa Mosque’s courtyards on Thursday morning after it was reopened at dawn following a 40-day closure.
Settler break-ins at the Aqsa Mosque started at 6:30 a.m. instead of the previous 7:00 a.m., after Jewish temple groups and Israeli police announced a half-hour extension.
The new schedule for settler tours of the Mosque now runs from 6:30 to 11:30 a.m., and again from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m., amounting to a total of six and a half hours each day.
Settlers’ daily tours of the Aqsa Mosque date back to 2003, when they started entering its courtyards under police protection. In 2008, their tours shifted to a more organized schedule, initially limited to three morning hours from 7:00 to 10:00, before being gradually extended year after year.
Earlier at dawn, Muslim worshipers returned to the Aqsa Mosque after forty days of closure imposed by the Israeli occupation authority.
Social media videos showed Palestinians joyfully streaming through the Mosque’s gates early on Thursday morning. About 3,000 worshipers were able to observe the dawn prayers, amid tight police access restrictions.
Police officers reportedly arrested a female worshiper identified as Muntaha Amara at one of the Mosque’s gates, only a few hours after detaining a young man inside its courtyards.
The Islamic Awqaf Administration in Occupied Jerusalem already announced that the doors of the Aqsa Mosque would be reopened to Muslim worshipers as of dawn. The Jordanian-affiliated religious authority responsible for managing the Mosque did not provide further details.
Videos from the Mosque also showed volunteers and caretakers in the Mosque’s courtyards and prayer areas preparing to receive Muslim worshipers.
The Israeli occupation police announced the reopening of the Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening.
The police attributed the opening of the Palestinian holy sites to what it called “updated instructions from the Israeli home front command.”
