(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) Israeli occupation forces laying siege to al-Aqsa Mosque for a third straight day Tuesday escorted scores of extremist Jews into the compound on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot while keeping the site off limits to most Palestinians, the Jerusalem Awqaf Department said in a statement.
Today's storming of the Al Aqsa or Haram Al Sharif, the latest breach of the sacredness of one of Islam's holiest sites, comes as Israeli troops and paramilitary police imposed tight restrictions on Palestinian worshippers trying to access the compound, located in the walled Old City of Jerusalem.
The Awqaf, the religious authority administering the holy shrine, said Israel continued to deny Muslim men and women under the age of 50 entrance to the compound for the third day in a row. Older people were granted access via three gates Israel had opened, but some women over 50 years of age were kept away from the house of worship, it said.
Al-Aqsa Mosque director, Sheikh Omar Kiswani, said some 143 ultraorthodox Jews and Jewish settlers barged into the mosque's plaza through the Bab Al Magharebeh gate in groups amid the tight blockade slapped by the special security forces.
Those kept outside were shoved and beaten by police, who were deployed heavily on major entry points, and youths were chased off in the alleyways of the Old City.
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