Second day of Sukkot at Al-Aqsa: 1,500 settlers and mass rituals amid the mosque's clearing of worshippers
On Sunday, the second day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, approximately 1,500 settlers, including rabbis and Knesset members, made extensive, successive incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They performed collective public prayers and religious rituals in the mosque’s courtyards and corridors, mainly in the eastern area, carrying religious texts and plant species associated with Sukkot and chanting hymns, singing, dancing, clapping, and prostrating.
Conversely, occupation forces imposed strict restrictions on Muslims entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, barring people of various ages—including the elderly—from accessing the site. Those who managed to enter were confined to the covered prayer halls, leaving the open courtyards available to the intruders and their rituals.
1,500 settlers at Al-Aqsa on the second day of Sukkot: Successive incursions and collective public rituals
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center-Jerusalem reported that 1,500 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque today: 1,143 during the morning session (6:30 AM to 11:30 AM) and 357 during the afternoon session (1:30 PM to 3:00 PM). They entered through the Dung Gate, whose keys have been controlled by occupation authorities since the occupation of Jerusalem.
The incursions occurred in large, successive groups of 70 to 130 individuals, with up to four groups allowed inside Al-Aqsa Mosque at the same time.
From Dung Gate to Al-Silsileh Gate: Rituals accompany incursions along the route
Prayers and rituals continued without interruption from the groups’ entry through Dung Gate until their exit from the mosque complex through Al-Silsileh Gate. Prayers, hymns, and religious rituals accompanied the intruders throughout the incursion. In the mosque’s courtyards and corridors, they performed prayers and rituals associated with the holiday of Sukkot, as well as daily prayers, while singing, chanting, dancing, and clapping echoed through Al-Aqsa Mosque.
From demands to practice: Establishing religious rituals in the eastern area
In its account of events inside Al-Aqsa, the center added that the mosque’s eastern area was the main focus of these incursions and rituals. Large groups arrived one after another, with some staying for more than 40 minutes to perform group prayers and religious rituals, including prostration, while rabbis carrying religious texts were present.
Recently, prayers in the eastern area have spread beyond a single spot to the stone platforms and the path leading to the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall, with collective prayers repeated and people standing for extended periods in these locations.
These practices take place as settler groups and certain officials describe the eastern area as a site for prayer, while circulating rhetoric calls it an "undeclared synagogue" within Al-Aqsa Mosque. This framing makes the repetition of prayers and rituals there part of an ongoing effort to establish a pattern of recurring religious use in the zone.
These practices have intensified along a trajectory in which extremist “Temple” groups’ demands to bring books and prayer sheets into Al-Aqsa and perform religious rituals there gradually became repeated practices inside the mosque.
Furthermore, today the "Four Species" used in Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles)—the citron, palm frond, green myrtle branch, and willow branches—were brought into the mosque. Settlers carried them, performed religious rituals with them, and waved them during prayers.
Some of those who stormed the site, including rabbis, carried religious books and papers during the incursions. This continues the trend of bringing such materials into Al-Aqsa Mosque this year, a practice that began in April and continued through August.
The rituals were not limited to the eastern area. Prayers and religious practices spread through the mosque’s courtyards and corridors, as groups continued their rituals and chants along the entire route of the incursion.
Knesset members Amit Halevi and Yitzhak Kreutzer stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed public Jewish prayers and rituals in its courtyards on the second day of the Sukkot festival.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center-Jerusalem stated that Knesset members’ participation in these incursions and their performance of religious rituals inside Al-Aqsa Mosque are particularly dangerous. These actions go beyond those of ordinary settlers, reflecting the involvement of political figures and members of Israel’s legislative establishment in imposing such rituals inside the mosque. This reinforces efforts to turn the incursions into a public, recurring religious practice and impose a new reality on Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Additionally, a group of rabbis from the so-called "Moroccan Association of Rabbis” stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque with dozens of settlers, under heavy protection from occupation police. During the incursion, the rabbis wore traditional North and East African attire; some wore the *Tallit* (prayer shawl) and traditional red *tarboosh* hats. The group toured the mosque’s eastern paths and corridors, loudly chanting hymns and religious songs associated with the Sukkot holiday, along with blessings linked to the plant species used in the holiday's rituals.
This organized incursion is part of settler groups’ efforts to mobilize various rabbinical factions, expand their presence, and hold public rituals inside Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holiday season.
During the incursions, several settlers wore shirts bearing slogans and images calling for the construction of the "Temple" at the Al-Aqsa Mosque site. As they toured the mosque courtyards, they openly displayed these messages alongside explicit calls to demolish the mosque and build the "Temple" in its place.
Emptying Al-Aqsa of worshippers: Even the elderly barred from entry
While settlers performed public religious rituals throughout the mosque’s courtyards and corridors, Al-Aqsa Mosque was virtually empty of Muslim worshippers. This resulted from tighter restrictions at the Old City and mosque gates, the clearing of courtyards of Palestinian worshippers and those stationed at its gates, and preemptive expulsion orders issued against dozens of Jerusalemites ahead of the holiday season.
Even the elderly and funeral processions: Palestinians barred from reaching Al-Aqsa
As worshippers arrived for the Noon prayer, occupation forces barred people of all ages, including the elderly, from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque. They instructed worshippers to return after 3:30 PM, amid strict midday entry restrictions.
Forces stationed at the mosque gates barred men and women aged 70 to 86 from entering. Although they tried to reach Lions' Gate and remain in the area, an officer stopped them and threatened to use force.
Forces also barred mourners from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque for funeral prayers. They allowed only four people inside before ordering them to leave and prohibiting anyone from remaining in the area.
Even those who reached Al-Aqsa Mosque were made to move into the covered prayer halls, while its courtyards were cleared and left open to settler incursions and rituals.
Prayers extend to the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Gates and the Al-Buraq Wall
Prayers and rituals extended beyond the interior of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hundreds of settlers held group prayers outside its gates and marched through the area carrying plant species associated with the Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) holiday. Settlers also held central prayers in Al-Qattanin Market and in the areas of Hutta Gate, Lions Gate, and King Faisal Street.
Hundreds of settlers also gathered for prayers at the Al-Buraq Wall, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Today’s events at Al-Aqsa Mosque follow a recurring pattern during various Jewish holidays and occasions. This pattern includes growing numbers of settlers entering the site; the repetition and expansion of collective prayers and rituals into the mosque’s courtyards, corridors, eastern area, and the vicinity of its gates; and tighter restrictions on Muslim entry, including barring specific age groups from reaching the mosque.
As these practices continue alongside the removal of Muslim worshippers from the courtyards, leaving them open to those entering the site, a clear trend emerges: a new reality is being imposed at Al-Aqsa Mosque. This entails entrenching specific religious uses at designated places and times while restricting Muslim access, gradually establishing the mosque’s temporal and spatial division.
