Today, Sunday, settlers stormed the courtyards of the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, under the protection of the Israeli occupation police, from the direction of the Mughrabi Gate. They carried out provocative tours of its courtyards and performed Talmudic rituals.

The occupation police stationed at the gates of the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque also prevented a number of citizens from entering, causing a decrease in the number of worshipers.

This coincides with thousands of settlers preparing to storm the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem, this evening, in order to celebrate what they call the “Feast of the Torch,” which they deliberately commemorate inside and around a cave that they claim contains the grave of “Simon the Friend.”

Neighborhood residents reported that since yesterday evening, Saturday, the colonists storming Sheikh Jarrah have been provoking the residents, under the pretext of celebrating what they call the “Feast of the Torch” to the sounds of loud songs that continued until the late hours of the night.

The neighborhood committee said that Sheikh Jarrah is witnessing a complete closure from Sunday morning, and movement is prohibited within the neighborhood’s streets, to facilitate the movement of settlers after they seized and bulldozed the open land in the neighborhood in preparation for holding the Judaizing settlement celebration.

It explained that the residents feel extreme fear, especially since they are imprisoned inside their homes amid the presence of hundreds of Israeli occupation police officers, and are exposed to settlers’ provocations and attacks, and fear for their homes from settlers coming to the neighborhood, especially since they are carrying weapons.

The residents expressed their fear for their children and the neighborhood’s youth from attacks by settlers and the Israeli occupation police. They headed from the celebration site into the neighborhood next to the citizens’ homes under the pretext of visiting what they call “Shimon Siddiq’s” cave.