As Israeli police enter the Al-Aqsa mosque, Palestinian resistance increases.

Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City early on Wednesday, leading to clashes with Palestinian worshippers and sparking an exchange of rockets and air strikes. Witnesses and medics said the police used excessive force to remove the worshippers and fired tear gas into the building, causing serious cases of suffocation. Later, dozens of Jewish settlers stormed the compound after police had forcefully removed most of the Palestinian worshippers. The violence comes as Muslims mark the holy month of Ramadan and Jews prepare to begin the Passover festival, raising fears of escalation. The Israeli military said it attacked two Hamas weapons manufacturing and storage sites in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning, following rocket fire from the Strip towards Israel.

The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said the occupation forces arrested more than 400 Palestinians during their aggression against Al-Aqsa, before later releasing most of them while ordering many to stay away from the compound and the Old City of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Red Crescent said that 50 people were injured. The attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied West Bank was condemned by the foreign ministries of Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. The Arab League and the Jordan-controlled Islamic trust that administers the site, known as the Waqf, called for an emergency meeting on Wednesday afternoon over the Israeli police raid. Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called for Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Israel to gather around the Al-Aqsa and confront Israeli forces.

Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Twitter that Muslim worshippers at the mosque testify that the Muslim extremists who barricaded themselves in the mosque imprisoned them there and prevented other Muslims from coming to the mosque to pray. Israel is committed to maintaining freedom of worship, free access to all religions, and the status quo, and will not allow violent extremists to change that.