Israeli forces arrest 2 women, mosque employee at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa

Israeli forces arrested two women and an employee Sunday from inside the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem, in the latest violations against worshippers and mosque staff.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing local sources, reported that Israeli forces stopped the two women while they were inside the Al-Aqsa compound, arrested them, and took them to “an undisclosed location.”

Israeli forces also arrested Raed Zaghir, head of the cleaning department at Al-Aqsa Mosque, while he was inside the site, the Jerusalem Governorate said in a brief statement.

The arrests came amid escalating raids and violations at Al-Aqsa, alongside tighter restrictions on worshippers and repeated assaults and detentions targeting Palestinians at the holy site.

Hours earlier, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir raided the flashpoint site under heavy police protection.

Since 2003, Israeli police have allowed Israeli occupiers to enter the mosque compound despite repeated protests from the Islamic Waqf Department, which oversees the site.

Since Ben-Gvir took office as Israel’s national security minister at the end of 2022, Israeli violations at the mosque have increased.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Palestinians say Israel is intensifying measures aimed at Judaizing occupied East Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and erasing its Arab and Islamic identity.

They insist on East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, based on international resolutions that do not recognize Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967 or its annexation in 1980.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul