Watermarked preview. The licensed file is delivered in full quality without the watermark.
Preview: first 60 seconds — full file 08:53.
APAwire - APAwire CLIENTS ONLY, Gaza - 28 August 2022. Palestinian expert of Israeli affairs Said Bisharat speaks during an interview with APA agency in Gaza city.
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: APAwire CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST: APAwire - APAwire CLIENTS ONLY, Gaza - 28 August 2022. Palestinian expert of Israeli affairs Said Bisharat speaks during an interview with APA agency in Gaza city. STORYLINE: For the first time ever, a group of hardcore Israeli settlers escorted by police today broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem through the Lions Gate on the eastern side of the complex, which is usually used by Muslim worshipers in their way to the mosque. Over the past years, Israeli authorities have only allowed settler groups to break into the holy site through the Moroccan Gate, on the western side of the mosque complex, but this was the first time that Israeli police allowed settlers to use the Lions Gate, a step that Sheikh Omar Kiswani, the director of the mosque, described as a serious step that violates the status quo at the holy site and the agreements signed between Israel and Jordan concerning the affairs of the mosque. Kiswani said the Israeli police claimed that they only asked a group of settlers who had entered the holy site through the Moroccan Gate to leave through the Lions Gate, but he said soon after the police allowed another group, although a smaller one, to enter the holy site through the Lions Gate. Since 2003, the Israeli authorities have allowed settlers into the compound almost on a daily basis, with the exclusion of Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship. The development comes on the 53rd anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Mosque arson, when Denis Michael Rohan, an Australian tourist, set the main building inside the mosque and its pulpit on fire. The Islamic Waqf Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department, in charge of the holy site, has repeatedly described the settlers' presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque as provocative, saying that Palestinian worshippers and guards at Al-Aqsa feel uncomfortable with the presence of Israeli police and settlers touring the Islamic holy site. Footage by /APA
Original caption as filed by the journalist, unedited.
Editorial use only. No alterations beyond standard cropping and colour correction.
Copyright: © APA Images
Contact APA for available qualities and pricing.
Request commercial, exclusive, documentary, or other custom rights for this material.
Find photos, videos and stories in your language.
Try asking
