SAFA- Al-Quds International Foundation has warned about increasing Israeli aggressions directed at the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, stating that these measures are intended to clear out the area and pave the way for shutting it down again, as part of a wider effort to enforce a spatial division within the mosque.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the foundation said Israeli occupation forces have intensified raids on Bab al-Rahma since Al-Aqsa Mosque reopened to worshippers on April 9.

The foundation reported that several worshippers and mosque custodians have been expelled from the prayer hall, while its loudspeakers were disconnected from Al-Aqsa’s central sound system, limiting its connection to the rest of the mosque.

The escalation, it said, reached a peak on July 17 following Friday prayers, when Israeli forces raided the prayer hall and forcibly removed those inside.

Attempts to Alter Al-Aqsa’s Status

The foundation also condemned repeated Israeli incursions into Bab al-Rahma while wearing shoes, despite the area being carpeted and used for worship for years. It described the practice as an attempt to undermine the hall’s status as a Muslim prayer space and create conditions for shutting it down again.

It stressed that the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, covering 144,000 square meters, is an exclusively Islamic site, emphasizing that Muslims have an equal right to pray in Bab al-Rahma as they do in the mosque’s southern prayer hall or any other part of the compound.

The foundation said the targeting of Bab al-Rahma is part of wider efforts to revive plans for spatial division inside Al-Aqsa. It referred to Israeli maps published in 2013 that included the eastern area of the compound among zones proposed for separation in favor of settlers.

It added that recent measures have coincided with actions targeting the Imam al-Ghazali Dome and the Hadith House building on the eastern side of the compound, alongside the facilitation of settler rituals in the eastern courtyard.

The foundation described the placement of two tents during incursions marking the so-called “Temple Destruction Anniversary" as a dangerous development aimed at establishing new realities inside Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Al-Quds International Foundation called on Palestinians in Jerusalem and across the occupied territories, as well as all those able to reach Al-Aqsa, to increase their presence at the mosque and maintain continued vigilance in Bab al-Rahma and the eastern courtyard.

It also urged Jordan, as the custodian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, along with Arab and Islamic countries, to take urgent political and legal measures to halt what it described as ongoing Israeli attempts to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque and alter its Islamic identity.