Palestinian groups urge Al-Quds residents to protect Al-Aqsa mosque

Over 100 Palestinians were injured and 50 others were detained in nightly violent clashes with Israeli police and settlers amid simmering tensions surrounding the holy month of Ramadan in the occupied city of East Al-Quds.

Violent clashes broke out between extremist Zionist settlers and Palestinians after some 300 extremist Jewish settlers marched towards Damascus Gate outside the Old City of Al-Quds, shouting “Death to the Arabs” and “Arabs get out” late on Thursday.

The clashes, which began on Thursday evening and continued until the early hours of Friday.

The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks, calling on the international community to “take practical measures to compel Zionist regime to immediately end its occupation and settlement, and to impose sanctions on it and hold its leaders accountable for their violations and crimes.”

Earlier on Friday, the Palestinian resistance movement of Islamic Jihad urged Palestinians to defy the Israeli forces and head to al-Aqsa Mosque and protect it from Israeli settlers’ attacks.

In a statement, the movement praised the people of al-Quds who are defending al-Aqsa and the identity of al-Quds against Israeli plots.

It also called for demonstrations in support of al-Quds and its people.

Palestinians took part in several protests in the besieged Gaza Strip, including in the cities of Jabalia and Rafah, to express their solidarity with the people in Jerusalem al-Quds who have been subjected to intensified attacks by Israeli forces and settlers since the beginning of Ramadan.

‘Army of return’

Addressing demonstrators in Gaza City, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a member of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas, said any desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque was a desecration of the mosques in all Arab and Muslim countries.

He urged Islamic and Arab nations to form an “Army of return” to liberate al-Aqsa Mosque and al-Quds.

In his speech, Zahar condemned the normalization deals recently reached between some Arab regimes and Tel Aviv.

The Palestinians have denounced the deals as a stab in their back and a direct affront to their cause of liberating their land from Israeli occupation.

‘Don’t test our patience’

Commenting on the Thursday incidents, Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, vowed to defend al-Aqsa Mosque, al-Quds, and its people.

Addressing the people of al-Quds, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said the Palestinians in al-Quds had the solid support of the Gazans and stressed that the two shared the battle to liberate Palestine.

It also warned Israel “not to test our patience.”

Separately, Israeli forces suppressed an anti-settlement protest in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds on Friday, attacking the participants in the demonstration.

Fresh anti-settlement protests also took place in the occupied West Bank.

In Kafr Qaddum, clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces, who used tear gas against the demonstrators, leaving an unspecified number of the demonstrators suffering breathing difficulties.

Israeli forces also attacked a weekly anti-settlement protest in the village of Beit Dajan, injuring a number of Palestinians.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

After former US president Donald Trump took office in December 2016, Israel stepped up its settlement expansion in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which pronounces settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they are built on occupied land.