Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa, escalate West Bank violence

Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday morning under the protection of Israeli police, entering through the Moroccan Gate in organised groups.

The Islamic Endowments Department said the settlers performed rituals in the eastern area of the mosque and took part in Talmudic prayers, in what was described as a continuing pattern of provocative incursions into one of Islam’s holiest sites.

At the same time, settlers began bulldozing land in the town of Turmusaya, northeast of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.

Hassan Mleihat, general supervisor of the Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights and Targeted Villages, told The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that settlers, accompanied by bulldozers, began levelling land belonging to the Abu Awad family.

He said the work was part of wider settlement activity aimed at seizing Palestinian land and confiscating property, warning that such actions pose a serious threat to security and stability in the region.

In Nablus, settlers stole 13 cows belonging to Nader Allan from the village of Einabus. Local residents said settlers had previously stolen 41 cows from Allan. He was detained by Israeli police at the time and pressured to withdraw the complaint he filed against the settlers.

Local sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Israeli forces also attacked the family of prisoner Muhannad Juwayhan in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

They said soldiers beat his father, sisters, and uncle, handed his father a summons for interrogation on Thursday, vandalised and destroyed the home's contents, tore up pictures of the prisoner, and seized a sum of money.

In Tulkarm, a Palestinian youth was wounded in the leg by Israeli gunfire on Tuesday evening after forces chased a group of young men. In Nablus on Wednesday morning, a Palestinian girl was injured when occupation vehicles rammed her car during a raid in which a young man was arrested. She was transferred to the hospital for treatment.

The Jerusalem Governorate said Israeli authorities are pressing ahead with the construction and expansion of settlement Road 437, known as Abu George Street, in the northeastern outskirts of Jerusalem. The governorate said the project will swallow up hundreds of dunams of Palestinian land.

According to its statement, the road begins at the Mishor Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem, passes through the towns of Anata and Hizma, and extends to the Jaba roundabout, where it connects with settlement Road 60. The project involves the seizure of hundreds of dunams for expansion and additional areas designated as a "buffer zone".

The statement confirmed that dozens of demolition and evacuation orders have been issued to residents, particularly in Hizma and Jaba. It said the road is part of a broader colonial plan to isolate Palestinian towns and link Israeli settlements through a network of roads Palestinians are barred from using, or subject to severe restrictions at checkpoints.

The governorate added that the road, along with other bypass roads around Jerusalem and the West Bank, serves the occupation’s strategy of Judaizing land, fragmenting Palestinian areas, and turning villages and towns into isolated enclaves.

This, it warned, will deprive thousands of citizens of freedom of movement and weaken the foundations of daily life.

It also said that Israel's Higher Planning Committee of the so-called Civil Administration approval of the E1 settlement plan on Wednesday came after rejecting objections submitted in early August.

The statement warned that the "Abu George road project integrates with this colonial infrastructure and annexation scheme, representing a dangerous step toward imposing a permanent reality that threatens the unity of Palestinian geography and entrenches an apartheid system on the ground".