The Al-Aqsa mosque is geographically located in Jerusalem, Israel. This is islam’s third-holiest site. Jews call the same place Temple Mount and believe the Jewish temples once stood there. The area has been a source of tension for decades. As Ramadan is going on right now, Muslims observe an act known as ‘itikaf’ when worshippers shut themselves off from the world and spend a long period in prayer which also goes on till days. For Palestinian Muslims staying in Jerusalem, this is the place where they want to worship during Ramadan. A lot of people stay in the mosque overnight. 

Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa mosque brutally overnight on 4th April 2023 and then again on 5th April 2023 morning. The security forces stood on the roof of the mosque and used a loudspeaker to tell the worshippers that they had to leave the mosque or else they would be removed by force. At that point, the youth present in the mosque decided to resist as they did not want their itikaf interrupted. The security forces decided to move in. According to one of the people inside, they broke the windows of the mosque and started throwing stun grenades at them. There were young children, elderly men, and women stuck inside. Another group of security forces came through a door and started firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets at the people. They attacked the people, beating them on the head with sticks, people fainted, were suffocated, and were bleeding. Then the police started arresting them. Hundreds of people were detained. They kept swearing the whole time, and pushed them into buses that took them to the police station where we were made to lie on the floor with their hands cuffed behind them. There must have been more than 400 people arrested. They took their names, then put a sticker on their bodies with the names and numbers. Every Palestinian that was arrested during the raid, was only left on the condition that they have been banned from entering Al-Aqsa for a week.

The Israeli police also said that according to a prior agreement with the Al-Aqsa authorities, no one was to spend the night inside the compound during the month of Ramadan. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said, “Al-Aqsa is for the Palestinians and for all Arabs and Muslims, and the raiding of it is a spark of revolution against the occupation,” International efforts are being made to mediate between Palestinian groups and the Israeli government to reduce tensions.

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• israel attack al aqsa mosque

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