JERUSALEM
A total of 6311 Israelis stormed East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound from the beginning of 2014 until Tuesday, according to a Wednesday report by a Palestinian NGO.
In a statement, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said the figure did not include the many Israeli troops who had entered the holy site in recent months.
As many as 5707 Jewish settlers forced their way into the compound during the period in question, the foundation, which is devoted to defending Al-Aqsa from Israeli violations, said in its report.
"The statistics – as well as the Israeli schemes, proposals and statements calling for the division of Al-Aqsa, whether in terms of space or time – illustrate a serious escalation against Islam's holiest site," the statement read.
The foundation called on Muslim and Arab countries to take steps to defend the Israeli-occupied holy city, and especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, from Israeli violations.
In recent months, groups of extremist Jewish settlers, often accompanied by Israeli security forces, have repeatedly forced their way into the Al-Aqsa complex. The frequent violations anger Palestinian Muslims and occasionally lead to violent confrontations.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. In 1980, it unilaterally annexed the area and claimed Jerusalem as the unified capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
By Anees Barghouthy
www.aa.com.tr/en
