Jewish Worshippers Enter Al-Aqsa Compound as West Bank Settler Violence Escalates
Jewish worshippers prayed at Al-Aqsa compound under police watch as settler violence in the West Bank entered a fifth night.
Jerusalem witnessed a fresh display of religious tension on Thursday as Jewish men were permitted to pray inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to both Judaism and Islam. Footage from the scene shows the worshippers, some lying on the ground in prayer, under the direct observation of Israeli police officers.
The visit comes against a backdrop of escalating violence in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers have surrounded three Palestinian homes on the outskirts of the town of Qusra for five consecutive nights. The standoff has reportedly prevented the families inside from leaving safely, with their supplies of food and water running low.
The Al-Aqsa compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism and the location of the biblical temples. For Muslims, it is the third-holiest site in Islam. While Israeli authorities generally restrict access, they have continued to allow limited numbers of Jewish worshippers and other non-Muslims to enter the site, a practice that has frequently sparked clashes and violence over the years.
The events in Qusra represent the latest in a wave of settler violence that is convulsing the West Bank, a territory Israel captured in the 1967 war and which is considered a central part of any future Palestinian state.