Hundreds of Israelis storm Al-Aqsa Mosque

JERUSALEM: Hundreds of extremist Israelis infiltrated the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, supported by Israeli police, prior to the contentious “Flag March” in occupied Jerusalem.

According to Al Jazeera, approximately 800 individuals participated, with one contingent allegedly led by former legislator Moshe Feiglin.

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The march this year takes place as the war in Gaza approaches the start of its ninth month, adding to concerns of wider violence.

Tens of thousands of marchers carrying blue and white Israeli flags are expected to parade through the narrow streets of the Old City, where many Palestinian shopkeepers shutter their businesses for fear of racist violence.

A police spokesperson said more than 3,000 police would be on duty to “maintain the routine of life as much as possible”.

“Israelis proceeding through Israel with Israeli flags is not incendiary, it’s just a national holiday that’s going to be taking place,” he said.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem, including East Jerusalem, which it seized in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised internationally, as the “eternal and undivided” capital of the Jewish state.

Palestinians see the march as a blatant provocation aimed at undermining their claim to East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state. Last year, the event saw groups of Jewish youths chant slogans including “Death to Arabs!”

The walled Old City of Jerusalem, home to some of the holiest sites of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian religions, has been a regular flashpoint for trouble, often from visitors from outside the area, where the three communities live in close proximity among the narrow alleyways.

This year, there was increased attention on the possibility of tensions flaring and a reaction from Hamas, which issued a statement calling for “general mobilization and confrontation” in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Violence during the march in 2021 helped contribute to the start of a 10-day war between Israel and the Islamist movement which had warned it would react to what it considered incursions at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound and attempts by Jewish settler groups to forcibly displace Palestinian residents from their homes.

The police said the march would not enter the hilltop compound, the third holiest site for Muslims and the holiest place for Jews, who revere it as Temple Mount, the site of two ancient Temples destroyed in antiquity.

Large numbers of Jewish visitors were reported to have entered the compound in the morning, under the arrangement with the Jordanian authority that administers the site which allows them to visit the compound but not to pray there.