The European for al-Quds organization has confirmed that Israeli violations in the occupied city of Jerusalem have seen a significant increase, with 2,541 violations documented during last April, more than one and a half times the number recorded in the previous month.
The organization said in its monthly report that the violations were distributed across 17 categories of human rights violations. The highest categories were arrests at 25.8%, assault and torture at 19.2%, and incursions and raids at 18.0%.
The report documented 78 incidents of direct shooting and assault by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in the neighborhoods of occupied Jerusalem, which resulted in the killing of the young man Hatem Asaad Abu Najma, 39, by a settler’s bullet, claiming he was carrying out a run-over operation that resulted in the injury of eight settlers.
The report also documented the injury of 51 citizens, as well as at least 488 citizens being beaten and tortured, most of them during the invasion of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
During this month, according to the report, repeated attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque were highlighted. The peak was on April 5, when the IOF stormed the northern prayer hall for the fourth consecutive night, and violently attacked those staying inside it after firing sound and gas bombs, rubber bullets, dragging and torturing 440 people, releasing most of them the next day on condition of being deported from the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque for a period ranging from 7 to 15 days.
The report also noted that as soon as Ramadan ended, the occupation began to carry out attacks targeting this time the Bab Al-Rahma prayer hall in Al-Aqsa Mosque. The attacks began on the third day of Eid Al-Fitr, April 23, when the IOF stormed the prayer hall, desecrated and vandalized its contents, damaged the electricity network inside it, cut off the sound, and repeated attacks and incursions almost daily in an attempt to re-close the prayer hall and impose spatial division of the mosque, where they expelled the worshippers and seized its contents.
The report also documented the violations and attacks committed by IOF against Palestinians during the month of Ramadan. The report states that the IOF carried out 457 raids on Palestinian towns and neighborhoods in Jerusalem, arresting 656 Palestinians, including 93 children and 12 women, and summoning 11 others. In addition, 54 Palestinians, including 20 children and 4 women, were placed under house arrest.
The report also notes that no demolitions were carried out during this month, but dozens of demolition orders were issued and distributed to homes and structures in Jerusalem.
Six settlement plans were identified in the report, aimed at changing the identity of Jerusalem and its Arab-Islamic character. These include a suspended bridge project in the Wadi Al-Rababa neighborhood in Silwan, approval of plans to create four settlement roads, a military base plan on Mount Scopus, plans to build 2,969 new settlement units in Jerusalem, the construction of a new settlement in the Beit Hanina area, and the expansion of the Givat Hamatos settlement on the lands of Beit Safafa.
During the month, 5,054 settlers, accompanied by tens of thousands of tourists, entered Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was repeatedly raided for 13 days, and witnessed 36 attacks, including repeated raids on the mosque and the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall and the cutting of the evening call to prayer.
Israeli authorities issued 515 deportation orders, including 75 deportation orders from Al-Aqsa Mosque, 16 from the Old City, 420 from Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, and 4 deportation orders from Jerusalem.
The report documents 31 attacks carried out by settlers that resulted in injuries to many Palestinians in addition to performing Talmudic rituals.
The report also monitored 87 fixed and flying checkpoints, 3 street closures, 4 travel bans, and 2 media freedom restrictions.
The report notes that Israeli attacks have extended to Christians, where Israeli authorities imposed strict restrictions on the access of Christians to the Church of the Resurrection in “Holy Saturday” and attacked the celebrants in the Old City, preventing dozens from entering the church.
Europeans for al-Quds Organization warned that these practices seek to perpetuate dealing with Al-Aqsa Mosque after it is an existing temple, by reviving all the peculiarities of the temple that have been destroyed by its collapse according to the religious narrative, a danger that transcends the temporal and spatial division of Al-Aqsa by jumping into the conflict over the nature and identity of Al-Aqsa.
