Over 1,800 Israelis stormed Al-Aqsa compound in August

By Anees Bargouthi

JERUSALEM (AA) - Some 1,898 Jewish settlers and Israeli security forces stormed East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in August, according to a Palestinian NGO.

“Around 1,723 Jewish settlers, 84 intelligence officers, 19 military officers and 72 Israeli government employees forced their way into the holy compound in August,” the Media Center for Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Affairs said in statement on Friday.

It said Israeli authorities also banned 34 Palestinians from entering the holy site for periods ranging from 15 to 60 days last month.

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.

Also in August, Israeli forces carried out sweeping arrest campaigns, targeting Palestinian residents in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Israeli forces detained 516 Palestinians, including 10 women and 73 minors, from several areas in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

The highest number of arrests was registered in East Jerusalem, where a total of 143 Palestinians were detained and Hebron, where 100 residents were arrested, the NGO said.

In the West Bank city of Hebron, thousands of Jewish settlers stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque on Thursday night and preformed Talmudic rituals.

According to Israeli channel 7, over 10,000 Israeli settlers entered the mosque under the protection of the Israeli security forces to mark the occasion of the Jewish Rosh Chodesh Elul – the beginning of the Hebrew month of September.

Revered by both Muslims and Jews, the Ibrahimi Mosque complex -- known to Jews as the “Cave of the Patriarchs” -- is believed to contain the graves of the prophets Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Since the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque by Jewish extremist settler Baruch Goldstein, Israeli authorities have kept Muslim and Jewish worshippers segregated.

The city of Hebron, Al-Khalil in Arabic, is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and some 500 Jewish settlers. The latter live in a number of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.