Scores of Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa complex

By Fatema Abu Sbeytan

JERUSALEM (AA) – Scores of Jewish settlers on Monday broke into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to a Palestinian agency.

“Around 130 Jewish settlers have entered the compound,” the Religious Endowments Authority -- a Jordan-run agency responsible for overseeing the city's Muslim and Christian holy sites, said in a statement.

According to the statement, the settlers entered the site under the protection of Israeli police -- through the compound’s Al-Mugharbah Gate.

Right-wing Israeli groups have called for large-scale incursions into the holy site on the occasion of Hanukkah festival, an eight-day Jewish holiday that marks the "rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem."

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount”, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, in which the Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

In a move never recognized by the international community, it annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the Jewish state’s “eternal and undivided” capital.

* Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara