Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday morning under the heavy protection of Israeli police, in yet another act Palestinians view as a calculated effort to alter the status and sanctity of one of Islam’s holiest sites.

Entering through the Moroccan Gate, the settlers performed religious rituals and roamed freely across the compound, while Palestinians were met with tightened restrictions. Worshippers had their IDs confiscated at the gates, part of an increasingly familiar pattern that turns sacred space into a zone of control and intimidation.

The intrusion, coming just two days after a similar settler incursion, underscores what many Palestinians believe is an ongoing campaign to fragment Al-Aqsa’s religious sovereignty and forcibly impose a spatial and temporal division. While settlers chant for the rebuilding of a so-called “Temple Mount,” Palestinians see these actions as deliberate provocations aimed at igniting tensions and reshaping Jerusalem’s identity.

In defiance, calls for mobilisation have surged across the city and beyond, urging Palestinians to stand in spiritual and physical defence of the mosque through a continuous presence, what they call Ribat. For those who remain, Al-Aqsa is not just a mosque, it is the heart of a struggle for dignity, history, and the right to exist freely in one’s homeland.