Hundreds of Israeli Settlers, Police Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque ahead of US Embassy Move

TEHRAN (Defapress)- “Hundreds of settlers stormed the compound along with a large Israeli police force,” Firas al-Dibis, a Palestinian official with Jerusalem’s Islamic Waqf, which oversees the city's holy sites, said in a statement, adding that the situation started to get worse when the Israeli police opened al-Maghareba Gate to allow more settler break-ins.

Tensions have prevailed across the Old City as Jewish settlers celebrated the anniversary of Israel’s occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem. Police heavily deployed across the Old City neighborhood in the occupied city and imposed strict measures to protect the settlers.

Israeli police also assaulted a number of Islamic Waqf guards for attempting to fend off Israeli settlers' provocative tour inside al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The Israeli police attack resulted in the injury of a number of Waqf personnel in charge of running al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while the police also arrested a guard of the Islamic Waqf.

The Israeli aggression on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy city of Jerusalem has increased after the United States recognition of the city as Israel’s capital.

The US President Donald Trump announced early December that Washington would be recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital, stressing that the United States would relocate the embassy in the occupied lands from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

Washington is scheduled to move its diplomatic mission to Jerusalem on Monday, as the US Presidential Delegation - which consisted of President Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan - arrived in Israel on Sunday afternoon ahead of the ceremony.

Tens of thousands are expected to protests the inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, while another large-scale demonstrate is planned which marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe), in which over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in 1948.

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