Indonesia condemns the raid on the Al Aqsa Mosque by hundreds of Israeli settlers during the Flag March celebration.
“This action is provocative and hurts the feelings of Muslims worldwide,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi said on its X account on Thursday, June 6, 2024.
All violations and violence committed by Israel, including in Gaza, must be immediately stopped, she said.
As reported by newarab.com, hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, shortly before the extremist so-called Flag March is set to take place. Local media reported that over 500 settlers stormed the Muslim complex under the protection of Israeli forces, performing religious rituals and touring around.
The raid came after Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatened to storm the site in an interview with the Israeli Army radio.
He said the march was planned to pass through the Muslim Quarter and the Damascus Gate in the Old City in East Jerusalem.
“We need to hit them in the most important place for them. Every year, they said that it wasn’t appropriate and it wasn’t the time. But the opposite is true. If we give ground to them we get an October 7,” Ben-Gvir said as quoted by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
The storming of the sacred site marks Israeli settlers’ celebration of ‘Jerusalem Day’, the anniversary of their capture of Palestinian East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
During the controversial Flag March, settlers waved Israeli flags and sang nationalist songs as well as anti-Arab slogans, while marching through Palestinian neighborhoods.
