Far-right Jewish settlers raid Al-Aqsa Mosque

JERUSALEM - Far-right Jewish settlers early Sunday stormed the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli police guarded the Jewish settlers during the raid,reported Anadolu Agency.

The police began to be deployed around the Qibla Masjid and did not allow the Palestinians inside to go outside.

They later started to take the Jewish settlers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque under intense security measures.

Earlier, the Israeli police did not allow young Palestinians to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex for morning prayers.

The Palestinians, who were not allowed in, performed morning prayers around the mosque.

Tension escalated across Palestinian territories after Israeli forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in East Jerusalem and forcibly removed worshippers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Israeli raids on the mosque triggered rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, with Israel retaliating with airstrikes.

Palestinians accuse Israel of systematically working to Judaize East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, and obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third-holiest site. Jews, for their part, call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two ancient Jewish temples.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community.

Meanwhile, Anadolu reported that the Israeli army targeted various locations on the claim that rockets were fired from Syria into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights early Sunday.

The army said rockets were launched from Syria and warned: "We are bombing Syria now in retribution." Three rockets were launched at Natur and Avnei Eitan in southern Golan Heights, according to Israeli public broadcaster, KAN.

Reports said two missiles landed in an open region and a third was destroyed by the Iron Dome missile defence system.

An Israeli army statement said one missile landed in uninhabited land to the south of the Golan Heights.

The army, which claimed that rockets were fired from Syria at regular intervals at regions under its control, was striking Syrian army locations with jets.

Since 1967, Israel has occupied the Syrian area of the Golan Heights.- BERNAMA-ANADOLU