As they marched through the Muslim quarter on Monday to honor “Jerusalem Day,” which commemorates the Israeli occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem following the 1967 war, some Israelis chanted “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn” in a chant.
Because settlers regularly assault, assault, and harass Palestinians and businesses in the Muslim quarter, thousands of heavily armed police and border police were dispatched in advance. In settlements and outposts, which are prohibited by international law, the settlers reside in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Palestinian rights activists, passers-by, schoolchildren, Israeli flag-bearing children, as well as young Israelis who were spotted attempting to break into homes with groups of young people trying to yell insults and trying to break into homes on Monday.
At the scene, police said to have taken at least two young people into custody, according to AFP reporters.
A member of the Israeli parliament and a small group of protesters, all of whom were members of the UNRWA, stormed a UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem.
The organization’s life-saving work has been done for more than 70 years in areas including the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip, which is now in jeopardized territory and in Israel.
About a dozen Israeli protesters, including one of the legislators behind an Israeli law that forbade UNRWA, reportedly entered the compound in front of Israeli police, according to UNRWA West Bank Coordinator Roland Friedrich.
Ultranationalist Israelis attacked a Palestinian journalist in the Old City last year and chanted for Palestinians to be killed in the procession, which took place during Israel’s first year of occupation of Gaza. And four years ago, the march led to the start of Gaza’s 11-day war.
More than 2, 000 Israelis stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and surrounding areas earlier on Monday, including Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and other politicians.
Ben-Gvir prayed for the victory of the war, the release of all our hostages, and the success of Major General David Zini, who had just been appointed as the head of the Shin Bet, in a video posted on his X account, which is Islam’s third-highliest.
Yitzhak Vaserlauf, the minister of Negev and Galilee, and Knesset member Yitzhak Kreuzer, both accompanied the ultranationalist minister.
Ben-Gvir has carried out similar provocative moves in the compound before, frequently at sensitive points in Israel’s war on Gaza, to call for increased military pressure and obstruct all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. He has been supported by armed police.
The Jerusalem Waqf, the Islamic body that regulates the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), called for an end to all “provocative activities” in the area.
Only Muslims are permitted to pray at the Waqf’s compound, which is run by the Jordan-appointed Waqf.
According to Nida Ibrahim of Al Jazeera, the march is intended to impose Israeli rule over the city.
According to Ibrahim, who spoke from Doha, Qatar, where Al Jazeera is prohibited from reporting in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, “Videos show Israeli citizens attacking Palestinian shops and throwing objects at them”
Source: Aljazeera
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