JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Despite the coordinated efforts of Israeli security forces as well as Jordanian officials to keep Temple Mount out of the Ramadan tensions, the Waqf, the body which is tasked with maintaining the Islamic customs on Temple Mount, caused a commotion late Tuesday night which immediately spilt out to Gaza.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Jordan had repeatedly warned the Waqf and the Jerusalem Mufti not to escalate the situation on Temple Mount. However the Waqf ignored the Jordanian requests and on Tuesday night 350 Palestinians barricaded themselves into Temple Mount in order to prevent the Jews from ascending in the morning, claiming that they “intended to bring a Pesach sacrifice.”
Police spoke with the rioters in an attempt to persuade them to leave but they continued to resist and police were forced to enter the Mount and forcibly remove them, with clips of Palestinians being hit with batons surfacing online soon afterwards.
Within an hour rockets were fired from the Gaza strip towards Sderot and the Western Negev communities who spent the night in shelters. Most of the rockets were diverted by the Iron Shield defense systems but one fell on an empty factory in Sderot causing some damage. One civilian was lightly injured while running to a shelter.
At the same time violence broke out in a number of villages in Judea and Samaria. Large forces dealt with the riots. In Beit Omar south of Gush Etzion, scene of a ramming attack on Sunday, rioters engaged IDF forces using live fire and explosive devices. One soldier was moderately injured by the gunfire. The IDF forces succeeded in dispersing the rioters a few hours later.
2 פעילי הר הבית עוכבו לפני זמן קצר עם גדי בידיהם.
בימים האחרונים: 6 עצורים בחשד שתכננו להקריב קרבן פסח.
פעיל נוסף הורחק מירושלים לשבועיים וחצי pic.twitter.com/aiWg4lQt2k— Carmel Dangor כרמל דנגור (@carmeldangor) April 5, 2023
The concerns of the Waqf were not unfounded, as a number of Jews have been detained in the past few days for attempting to carry kid goats into the Old City to bring as a Korban Pesach. The “Return to the Mount” organization had even tried to pay Arabs to smuggle a kid goat into Temple Mount, which could then be used as a Pesach sacrifice. Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef sharply criticized these efforts, saying that these Jews are irresponsible and are endangering all other Jews in Israel by causing unnecessary tensions.
wait the Zionists won? I cannot tell as it seems the Waqf calls the shots, remember Dayan wanted to give back the kotel to Jordan as he said he saw no point to a wall, this is a Zionist hero.
The Waqf’s fears are not completely unfounded. Every year there’s some nut case who brings a goat onto the Har Habayis with the intention of bringing a korban Pesach despite Halacha specifically prohibiting it. I’m sure someone posted online somewhere that they’re going to do it. We are still in Golus and we do not possess the Har Habayis. If we are zoicheh, someday we will get it back but not yet.
Flatten the mosque