JERUSALEM (AA) – Over 3900 Jewish settlers forced their way into East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last month alone, a Palestinian official said Wednesday.
“The highest number of incursions [by settlers] was recorded in July,” Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem’s Jordan-run Religious Endowment Authority, said in a statement.
He said around 3908 settlers and Israeli soldiers stormed the flashpoint site last month.
“This is a clear indication of the increasing violations by settlers in the holy site,” al-Dibs said.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.
Sacred to both Muslims and Jews, Jerusalem is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which for Muslims represents the world's third holiest site. Jews refer to the area as the “Temple Mount, ” claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories, ” considering all Jewish settlement building on the land illegal.
