Dozens of Israeli radicals storm Al-Aqsa Mosque compound

Dozens of Israeli radicals stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday, witnesses said.

The extremists carried out rituals at the occupied East Jerusalem site, according to sources cited by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The move marked a violation of the longstanding status quo arrangement governing Al-Aqsa mosque, which reserves prayer there for Muslims.

Israeli police protected the settlers, who stormed the compound in groups, the sources cited by Wafa said.

Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest site in Islam and the most-sacred Muslim place in Palestine.

Like other Muslim and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem, it is often targeted by Jewish extremists.

Many radical Israelis seek to either split the Al-Aqsa compound in terms of time and space available between Jews and Muslims or replace the mosque with a Jewish temple.

Palestinians view occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel illegally annexed in 1980 after capturing it in 1967, as the capital of their future independent state.

Almost the entire international community rejects Israel's annexation and sovereignty claims over Jerusalem.

However, Israeli authorities and settlers have long sought to push Palestinians out of the city.

They wish to make East Jerusalem – the city's Palestinian sector – into an Israeli area, erasing its Muslim and Christian character along the way and replacing it with a Jewish one.

These attempts are commonly known as "Judaisation".

Across East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank, there are 700,000 Israeli illegal settlers.

The construction and expansion of settlements are aimed at taking over Palestinian territory.

Settlements breach international law and are considered a key barrier to a workable two-state solution as they carve up Palestinian land.