Jerusalem/ West Bank: llegal Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday, as Israeli forces carried out widespread raids across the occupied West Bank, detaining at least 54 Palestinians.
The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs said that illegal settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound 27 times during December alone, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. The ministry also reported that Israeli forces prevented the call to prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron 53 times during the same period.
The developments come amid growing concerns that Israel is intensifying measures aimed at Judaizing occupied East Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and erasing its Arab and Islamic identity.
Early Monday, Israeli occupation forces conducted large-scale raids across several areas of the West Bank, arresting 54 Palestinians, including a child and a journalist.
Journalist Inas Ikhlawi was detained after Israeli forces raided her home, the Quds News Network (QNN) reported. Her brother, Raafat Ikhlawi, said soldiers broke into the family’s home during the early hours, forcibly took her away without allowing her to wear a headscarf or warm clothing, and dragged her outside. Following appeals from the family, soldiers allowed them to provide her with a coat. Her whereabouts and the reasons for her detention remain unknown.
Israeli forces also raided the town of Beitunia in the Ramallah district, conducting extensive searches of homes and damaging property amid heavy military deployment, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent.
At the same time, illegal settlers vandalized a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem’s Old City, smashing gravestones and damaging multiple burial sites, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
In al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, several Palestinian students suffered tear gas inhalation on Monday as Israeli troops stormed the town. WAFA reported that forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at students as they were leaving school and pursued them through narrow streets and main roads in the old city.
Illegal settlers also seized a Palestinian home in the Silwan neighborhood, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, early Monday. According to WAFA, dozens of settlers forcibly took over a house belonging to the Basbous family in the Batn al-Hawa area. The building contains two apartments and houses 13 Palestinian residents.
Al Jazeera Arabic reported that the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said settler violence has displaced 13 Palestinian Bedouin communities since the beginning of 2025, with illegal settlers carrying out 23,827 attacks during the same period.
The commission added that Israeli authorities have seized more than 90 percent of the Palestinian Jordan Valley and control approximately 70 percent of areas classified as Area C, effectively exerting control over about 41 percent of the total West Bank.
In Bruqin village, west of Salfit, dozens of illegal settlers gathered on the village’s northern outskirts, while another group reportedly stole 10 sheep, WAFA said. Settlers also blocked agricultural roads using bulldozers and earth mounds, cutting off farmers’ access to their land.
Meanwhile, in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, illegal settlers uprooted more than 150 olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers. Local activist Osama Makhamra said the vandalized trees belonged to Mohammad and Ahmad al-Mahamda, and that parts of the fence surrounding their land were destroyed.
Since Israel launched its assault on Gaza in October 2023, Israeli forces and illegal settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have killed at least 1,105 Palestinians, injured approximately 11,000, and arrested more than 21,000, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
