On Friday, April 15th, during the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims, Israeli Forces invaded Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and reportedly injured over 150 Palestinians who were praying there. The attacks began with tear gas shells and loud bombs while many Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the mosque and used rocks and stones from the ground to fight back as the invasion was underway. The site is also known as Haram al-Sharif, meaning Noble Sanctuary, and it is the third holiest site in all of Islam. The site is also known to Jewish people as Temple Mount, which is on the same grounds as the mosque, and it is the holiest site within Judaism as well.
Therefore the site has always been a major point of contention, and the tension is only heightened this year as Ramadan and Passover coincide. The entering of the site by Israeli forces is seen as a major escalation in the conflict and has raised fears about it escalating the violence in Israel and Palestine even further. This clash comes as part of a major uptick in violence between Israelis and Palestinians that has been going on for the past month as attacks have become more frequent from both sides.
According to Al-Jazeera, Rami al-Kathib, a Palestinian who was injured in the attack, stated, “They (Israeli forces) brutally emptied the compound. They were attacking the mosque staff, normal people, elders, and young people. There were many injured people; they fired rubber bullets inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. They were beating everyone, even the paramedics; they hit them.” Meanwhile, Israeli Police forces reported that 3 of the riot officers had been injured from the stones that had been thrown during the invasion. Many Israeli officials have denied wanting any kind of violent invasion as it has occurred. The Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, later stated that “Officials are working to calm things on the Temple Mount and throughout Israel. At the same time, we are prepared for any scenario.”
In accordance, another powerful official, Omer Barlov, who is the minister of public security who oversees the forces who stormed Al-Aqsa, has made it clear that Israeli supposedly has no interest in violence and the police force was only there to confront the violence that Palestinians had allegedly incited in the area earlier that morning. According to NBC News, the Palestinian leadership is in opposition to these assessments, with President Mahmoud Abbas stating that Palestinians see the invasion as a provocation of war and a ‘dangerous development’ according to NBC News.
This invasion is not the only dangerous development within Israel and Palestine in the past weeks, resulting in the deaths of approximately 14 people in Israel. It is a culmination of weeks worth of violence that has erupted since a terrorist, Ra’ad Fathi Hazem, shot and killed three people in Tel Aviv on April 7th. According to AP News, IDF troops have greatly expanded offensive raids in the West Bank since then, which has led to over 25 deaths of Palestinians, many of which were children. To name a few, Mohammed Zakarneh, age 17, was killed collaterally by troops who were targeting relatives of a gunman that committed a shooting in Israel earlier that week. Another boy named Qusai Hamamrah, age 14, was shot and killed right after that, on the same night that 20-year-old Omar Alyan was killed elsewhere in the West Bank in the area of Silwad. Two Palestinian women, both of which were mothers, were shot and killed in the West Bank the following morning.
Between gunmen attacking several Israeli cities and soldiers increasing raids on the West Bank and raiding the mosque as well, the death tolls are rising on both sides with no end in sight. The situation is dire and concerning, and people are afraid that this will escalate into another war similar to what happened last year in May 2021 when hundreds of Palestinians were killed in Gaza. Both sides are escalating violence in response to one another, and the rhetoric from leaders of Israel and from leaders of Hamas will do nothing to help the situation. This major incitement of conflict on the part of the Israeli soldiers could be detrimental to any hope of the violence in Israel and Palestine dying down, so it is absolutely imperative that the world condemns this violence in the same way that many leaders of the Arab nations are doing.
Countries like Jordan and Egypt have both spoken out against the raid at Al-Aqsa, and other leaders should be encouraged to do the same despite their relationship with Israel because this is about the basic principle of freedom to worship. While violence has been incited on both sides, it is unjustifiable to meet Palestinians throwing rocks with IDF soldiers throwing tear gas bombs. It is unacceptable to kill children as collateral damage and unjustifiable to kill mothers because they did not stop walking when they were told to. The Israel and Palestine conflict is, in my opinion, the most complex conflict of our time, and this dialogue does not need to be centered around solving that conflict as a whole. It needs to be solely de-escalating the violence, stopping the terrorism on both sides, and primarily it needs to be about saving innocent lives and preventing another war from breaking out in the near future.
