by Lubna Masarwa at Middle East Eye
Israeli forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday for the second successive night during Ramadan, after brutally assaulting worshippers at the site less than 24 hours earlier.
Dozens of armed Israeli officers entered the courtyards of the mosque while nearly 20,000 Palestinian worshippers were still performing the Ramadan Taraweeh night prayer.
Israeli forces fired rubber-coated bullets, tear gas and stun grenades at worshippers just before the prayer ended to disperse them and clear the mosque, eyewitness Firas al-Dibbs told Middle East Eye.
They also chased after people, beating them with batons and wounding some.
“They want to create a new reality. They want to empty Al-Aqsa Mosque of Palestinians,” al-Dibbs told MEE. “What happened, especially yesterday, was catastrophic. The scale of violence was shocking.”
A mosque volunteer,…
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