Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the Bab al-Rahma cemetery and the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday morning, performing public Talmudic rituals under the protection of Israeli forces.
The escalation came on the fourth day of the Jewish Passover holiday, as settler incursions and Israeli military activity surged across the occupied West Bank in tandem with the ongoing war on Gaza.
Sources said hundreds of settlers gathered at the Buraq Wall plaza, west of Al-Aqsa, while others roamed Jerusalem’s Old City streets in groups, staging ritual prayers near the mosque’s gates, including Bab al-Asbat, Bab Hutta, and the King Faisal Gate.
Hebrew songs and group dances were seen outside Al-Aqsa amid a tightening Israeli security presence. In Hebron, settlers attacked the Huwwara Basic School, assaulting a staff member, slashing car tires, and terrifying students.
The latest raid follows similar incursions into the Aqsa Mosque's compound since the start of Passover, when dozens of settlers entered the grounds alongside Israeli security forces.
While the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself is a revered Islamic site, many Jews refer to the wider compound as the "Temple Mount", claiming it to be the site of two ancient Jewish temples, though there is no archaeological evidence confirming the existence of the First Temple.
Since 2003, Israeli authorities have allowed settlers to enter the compound nearly daily, excluding Fridays and Saturdays, despite international concern over violations of the religious status quo. The Jerusalem governorate reported that 13,064 settlers entered the compound in the first quarter of 2025 alone.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to restrict access to Palestinian Muslim worshippers, especially on Fridays and during the Islamic month of Ramadan, while also conducting frequent raids alongside settler groups.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces raided the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya, surrounding two homes in separate neighbourhoods. The operation followed a series of deadly incursions in the Jenin area - attacks that have sent shockwaves into nearby towns like Zababdeh, a predominantly Christian community where the lead-up to Easter has been marked not by celebration, but by fear and displacement.
This year, Easter falls on the same weekend for Zababdeh's Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican communities. Dozens of families fleeing nearby Jenin have taken refuge in the town, seeking safety from the Israeli army's repeated assaults on the city and its refugee camp.
"The other day the army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children," Janet Ghanam, a 57-year-old Anglican, told AFP. "There is a constant fear - you go to bed with it, you wake up with it."
Her son, she added, won’t be able to visit this Easter, afraid of being trapped at one of the Israeli checkpoints that now choke Palestinian movement across the territory. Zababdeh may look peaceful, nestled in the northern hills, but the roar of Israeli fighter jets often drowns out the sound of its church bells.
"It makes you wonder - will my home be bombed? Will it be taken away?" said Anglican deacon Saleem Kasabreh, who described the present moment as an "existential threat", intensified by the death toll in Gaza, where over 51,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children.
In the West Bank, approximately 40,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in January and February in the largest displacement in the Palestinian territory since the Israeli occupation in the 1967 Mideast war.