Jerusalem’s Palestinian governorate slammed the latest settler raid as a direct attack on the sanctity of the mosque [Getty]
Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem early on Tuesday, raising an Israeli flag and performing Jewish rituals at the Muslim holy site.
Settlers from the Jewish extremist “Temple Mount” movement entered the mosque’s grounds under the protection of Israeli forces, carrying out the provocative acts on Israel’s so-called “Independence Day”.
Images posted to social media showed Israeli settlers posing in front of the Dome of the Rock, as well as performing rituals in the mosque’s courtyards.
The Jerusalem Governorate slammed the latest raid on Al-Aqsa as a direct attack on the sanctity of the mosque and an attempt to Judaize it.
Separately, the governorate reported that the Muslim call to prayer was not sounded from Al-Aqsa’s minarets on Monday for the evening Isha prayer, coinciding with the sirens commemorating Israel’s “Memorial Day” for its dead soldiers.
The silencing of the call to prayer as Israel marks Memorial Day is an annual occurrence which happens while Israeli authorities hold ceremonies at the Western Wall Plaza.
Elsewhere, images shared on Telegram by Israeli journalist Amit Segal showed Israeli forces raising flags in other areas occupied by Israel, including Gaza and southern Lebanon.
One video showed Israeli soldiers waving flags and saluting as they stood amid what appeared to be the ruins of a Lebanese village.
“Our soldiers singing Hatikvah somewhere in Lebanon,” Segal wrote.
Another photo showed the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, Gaza, with an Israeli flag stretched across the top of the building, with a Hebrew-language quote from the Torah.
“Behold, a people rises like a lioness, and lifts itself up like a lion,” the words on the flag read, quoted from the Book of Numbers.
The Indonesian Hospital, one of Gaza’s largest medical centres, has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. In July 2025, Israel bombed the home of the hospital’s director, Dr Marwan al-Sultan, killing him and his wife, daughters, and son-in-law.
Israel’s ‘Independence Day’ is one of the country’s most prominent state events, often used to highlight figures seen as embodying national values and achievements.
The Israeli holiday coincides with Palestinian remembrance of the Nakba, the violent expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land by Zionist militias at the time that Israel was created in 1948.
