More than 2,200 Jews have ascended Temple Mount, located in Jerusalem’s Old City, since Passover began on April 5.
Of those, some 1,200 visited Judaism’s holiest site on Monday, Israeli officials said.
The rioters, who had smuggled fireworks, clubs and stones into the mosque, blocked the doors from inside using iron rods, closets and other objects. They chanted inciting slogans, and threw stones and shot fireworks at police.
Police attempted to convince the rioters to leave the site peaceably and when that failed were forced to enter.
1/9 The Israel Police arrested and removed over 350 individuals that violently barricaded themselves in the Temple Mount, including masked individuals, stone and firework hurlers/throwers, and individuals suspected of desecrating the mosque pic.twitter.com/XT6sXHNBVt
— Israel Police (@israelpolice) April 5, 2023
On Saturday night, hundreds of Muslims again barricaded themselves inside Al-Aqsa, preventing people from praying and attempting to provoke a response from Israeli security services. However, police did not enter the building to clear out the extremists.
Instead, Israel’s Foreign Ministry called on Amman, through the Waqf Islamic trust tasked with safeguarding Muslim sites on the Temple Mount, to take action against the extremists.
The tweet was in response to an earlier Jordanian Foreign Ministry announcement accusing Israel of violating the status quo on the Mount and warning of “catastrophic consequences” if Israel continued its “violations.” The statement said that Israel bore responsibility for any escalation.
The spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, Sinan al-Majali, said that the entire 37 acres of the Temple Mount were “a pure place of worship for Muslims,” the Petra news agency reported.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted by Petra as saying that “Israeli provocations will turn the [Temple Mount] courtyards into battlefields.”
1/2 Following the announcement of the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Those who desecrate the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and barricade themselves inside it are a dangerous mob, radicalized and incited by Hamas and other terror organizations. https://t.co/RJJKXoM3Uk
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) April 8, 2023
Nevertheless, on Sunday thousands of Jewish worshippers packed the Western Wall Plaza, located directly below the Temple Mount, for the Passover priestly blessing.
Twice annually, during Passover and during Sukkot, a mass priestly blessing is held at the site, attended by thousands of Jews.
During 2022, 51,483 Jews visited the Temple Mount, up from 34,651 in 2021 and 20,684 in 2020, according to statistics compiled by Beyadenu, an NGO dedicated to strengthening the Jewish connection to the holy site.