According to eyewitnesses, dozens of soldiers were deployed in the mosque grounds shortly before the start of the settler invasion.
The Israeli occupying forces assaulted the Palestinian worshipers with truncheons, and arrested several of them, pursued them into the esplanade and courtyard of the Dome of the Rock, to force them to evacuate the mosque.
Israeli forces allow settlers daily, except Fridays and Saturdays, to raid the mosque compound in the mornings and afternoons after the end of the Muslim midday prayer.
They had imposed, at dawn on Sunday, restrictions on the entry of the faithful to the mosque to perform the dawn prayer.
For days, tension has reigned in the city of Jerusalem and in the mosque compound due to the incursion of settlers during the Jewish Passover holiday, which coincides with the month of Ramadan.
400 Palestinians were arrested
On Friday, dozens of people were injured by Israeli police, who fired rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and stun grenades into the mosque’s forecourts and prayer halls.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said 152 people had been evacuated from the mosque and transferred to nearby hospitals, including at least seven people with injuries to the upper half of their bodies.
Al-Makassed Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem says it received around 40 wounded from al-Aqsa, including two in critical condition.
About 400 people were arrested in the mosque during the raid, according to Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, director of al-Aqsa Mosque.
“The occupation seeks to create chaos and assert itself over al-Aqsa,” he said in a phone interview with Al Jazeera Arabic. “On the ground, the Israeli forces are still present on the scene despite the announcement of their withdrawal and their departure from the site”.
“Worshipers have been prevented from entering the site at the gates and Israeli forces are terrorizing worshipers and creating a climate of fear.”
Relief prevented from entering
The raid began shortly after the end of dawn prayers, at around 5:30 a.m. (local time), and lasted until around 9:30 a.m.
Israeli forces burst into the courtyards of the mosque from several gates, scaled the roof of the Qibli prayer hall (the main building of the silver-domed site where congregational prayers take place) and fired on the faithful, preventing help from accessing the building to treat the wounded.
Footage shared on the internet shows the use of tear gas and stun grenades inside the Qibli prayer hall.
After a four-hour assault, Israeli forces emptied the courtyards of the mosque of all worshippers. Then they moved towards the devotees in the Qibli prayer hall, who refused to be chased away. However, dozens of Israeli police broke in and fired directly at them, before arresting at least 40 of them.
Meanwhile, Israeli guards posted at the gates of the mosque prevented Palestinians from entering the site before Friday prayers, which were due to begin the following hours.
Buildings in the complex were damaged in the attack, according to witness accounts.
Rescue workers, journalists, mosque volunteers and women were targeted, according to Palestinian media reports. Journalists Muhammad Samreen and Rami al-Khateeb are among the injured. At least one child has been arrested.
The raid comes on the second Friday of Ramadan, the holiest month of the year for Muslims, when tens of thousands of worshipers flock to al-Aqsa to pray.