The Israeli occupation has once again sealed off Al-Aqsa Mosque, barring worshippers from entering and further fuelling concerns over a calculated campaign to alter its religious and historical identity. On Sunday morning, Israeli forces emptied the mosque’s courtyards, allowing only Islamic Endowment staff inside, a move that has become disturbingly routine.
This follows a brief and highly restricted reopening last Wednesday, when just 500 Jerusalemite worshippers were allowed in. The mosque had been shut the previous Friday, coinciding with the start of Israel’s military escalation against Iran.
The closures, however, are only one layer of what Palestinians describe as a deeper, more dangerous strategy. On Saturday night, Israeli forces stormed Al-Aqsa’s prayer halls, vandalised their interiors, and arrested four of its guards, signalling, once again, that even the sanctity of one of Islam’s holiest sites is not immune to the occupation’s aggression.
Experts warn that Israel is exploiting current regional instability to accelerate its long-standing plan to Judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque. Fakhri Abu Diab, a Jerusalem-based researcher, says the objective is clear: to diminish Muslim presence, normalise closures, and ultimately sever the connection between Palestinians and the mosque.
He describes the measures, forced deportations, checkpoints, restricted access, and settler incursions, as part of a systematic attempt to change the status quo. "The occupation wants people to grow accustomed to a closed Al-Aqsa, until it becomes the norm," Abu Diab warns. “It’s a slow erasure.”
In the surrounding Old City, Israeli authorities have tightened restrictions even further, allowing only residents to enter. The result is economic strangulation—shops are shutting down, tourism has vanished, and daily life has become unsustainable for Jerusalemites.
Palestinians fear that as global attention remains fixed elsewhere, the occupation is quietly fast-tracking its project to reframe Al-Aqsa as a contested site, undermining its Islamic identity, and paving the way for expanded settler rituals under the guise of “security.”
With access cut, guards arrested, and the local community increasingly marginalised, the silence from international actors grows louder. And in that silence, the foundations of one of the Muslim world’s most sacred spaces are being shaken.