By Alaa Rimawi
JERUSALEM
As many as 89 Israeli settlers forced their way into Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday amid heavy police protection, a Palestinian official said.
"Knesset Deputy Speaker Moshe Feiglin was among those who stormed the complex," Sheikh Omar al-Qiswani, the Palestinian director of the Al-Aqsa complex, told Anadolu Agency.
"The Israeli military had sealed the gates of the complex in a move that has become all too familiar," el- Qiswani added.
However, the Israeli police in a statement said that it has decided to open the site for visitors.
On a another note, the Israeli police said that its troops had detained 17 Palestinians in Jerusalem for throwing rocks at Israeli buses and police cars, Israeli Channel 7 reported.
That raised the number of Palestinians detained in Jerusalem since the end of October to 111, the report said, noting that police asserted its forces will continue arrests in the coming days to bring calm back to Jerusalem.
Tensions remain high in Jerusalem after Israeli forces on Thursday killed a young Palestinian man – who had been suspected of shooting extremist rabbi Yehuda Glick a day earlier – in a raid on his East Jerusalem home.
For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
In September 2000, a visit to the site by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon sparked what later became known as the "Second Intifada," a popular uprising against the Israeli occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.
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