Some 160 extremist Israeli settlers raided Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday while Israeli authorities prevented 180 Palestinian employees in the holy site from carrying out their work, Safa News Agency reported.

Israeli police opened Al-Maghrabeh Gate of Al-Aqsa Mosque for the Israeli Jewish settlers at 7.30am and deployed Special Forces around the holy side to protect the settlers.

One of the Palestinian employees in the mosque told Safa that he counted 158 settlers flocking to the Sanctuary Yards in groups who then carried out “provocative” tours around the holy sites.

Safa reported that Israeli police had tightened entry measures for Palestinian worshipers since the morning when they headed to Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform prayers and attend Qur’anic lessons.

Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Omar Al-Kiswani told Safa that Israeli authorities prevented 180 new Palestinian employees from entering the mosque to carry out their work, without giving a reason.

Al-Kiswani condemned the repeated Israeli raids, stressing that Israelis do not have the right to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque. He stressed that their entry to the mosque is considered a “violation of its sanctity”.

He stressed that facilitating the raids of Israeli settlers is an official Israeli measure to please extremist Israeli right-wingers.

Read: 870 settlers storm Al-Aqsa to mark Jewish holiday

On Tuesday 1,079 Israeli Jewish settlers raided Al-Aqsa Mosque under intensive security protection to mark the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’av.

Safa reported statistics issued by extremist right-wing groups which stated that a record number of Israeli Jews had entered Al-Aqsa Mosque in the last couple of days, noting that this beat the last record of 900 when they marched for Jerusalem Day a few months ago.

Israeli Jewish settlers continue to raid Al-Aqsa Mosque due to continuous propaganda put forward by Israeli right-wing groups.