The Department of Islamic Charities in Jerusalem announced that dozens of settlers attacked the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday morning, on the first day of the Jewish “Passover”, under heavy security by Israeli occupation police.

Al-Aqsa settlers from the Mughrabi Gate in the morning took successive groups dressed in “priestly robes”, took provocative tours of its courtyards and received briefings about the “temple”, the charity department said.

He explained that the settlers performed rituals and Talmudic prayers in the eastern part of al-Aqsa, as well as at al-Silsilah, Hatta and King Faisal gates.

According to the Palestinian Press Agency (Safa), it hit occupation forces en masse, spreading across the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards, amid strict restrictions imposed on worshipers’ entry to fend off a storm of settlers. and stopped at the mosque.

According to the agency, “the forces cleared the stalls and worshipers from the emigrants’ route and al-Qibli prayer hall, and after evicting most of them, prevented the youth from entering al-Aqsa.”

Israeli police tightened their security measures against worshipers visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and after dawn prayers, they barred youths under the age of 40 from entering, and arrested one of the youths in front of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Ghibli prayer hall led him outside the mosque.

A Palestinian boy from East Jerusalem’s Old City was wounded by gunfire from settlers, Israeli police and the boy’s family said.

The Red Crescent Society in Jerusalem confirmed that its staff “transported a 15-year-old boy to Al-Maqastu Hospital who was wounded in the arm by a live bullet in the Old City”. In a statement, Israeli police confirmed that a boy suffered “minor injuries” and added that “preliminary investigations show that the boy, in his sixties, attacked and threatened another man living in the Old City with a stick.”

Meanwhile, tensions continued for a second day after Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in the Gaza Strip early yesterday, firing rockets into southern Israel, Palestinian sources said.

With two missiles, the attacks targeted the base of the armed groups in the central Gaza Strip, which led to explosions and material damage, the sources said, causing no injuries.

Hours earlier, the Israeli military announced that it had detected two rockets fired from Gaza toward Israel, explaining that one of them landed inside the border and the second landed on the border fence.

The Israeli military said Palestinian militants fired rockets into southern Israel for a second day after an Israeli police raid on the al-Aqsa mosque compound sparked fears of an escalation in cross-border gunfire.