This is a summary of this week’s Middle East reporting from Al Jazeera.
In addition to bombings in Syria, Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem and simulate the Iraq War. Here is a summary of our reporting from Al Jazeera Digital’s Middle East and North Africa editor, Abubakr Al-Shamahi.
This week, images from Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque were difficult to look at. They displayed Israeli troops occupying the sacred place and assaulting and worshipping Palestinians while doing so. Several of those inside were engaged in i’tikaf, a type of Muslim worship that requires remaining in a mosque for a while when the raid occurred during Ramadan following night prayers.
Witnesses claimed that Israeli commandos broke the top windows of the third-holiest mosque in Islam, Al-Aqsa, before hurling stun grenades and firing tear gas at those within. Israeli troops are seen on video thrashing Palestinians with batons and forcing them to lie shackled on the mosque floor before removing them for arrest.
According to Israeli police, “masked agitators” who had locked themselves inside the mosque and were carrying rocks, sticks, and pyrotechnics forced them inside. Israel was “dedicated to safeguarding freedom of worship,” according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was already facing criticism over government policies from a sizeable segment of the Israeli populace.
A further escalation has been discussed in light of the violent incident, particularly in light of the fact that many ultranationalist Jews are anticipated to approach the Al-Aqsa compound to observe the Jewish festival of Passover, which began on Wednesday.
The increased Jewish presence at the site, according to Palestinians, could be a part of a plan to eventually take it over. A Jewish activist was already detained for preparing to perform an animal sacrifice there for Passover, which is deemed controversial and hasn’t been done since the beginning of time.
Israel, Syria, and Iran
Israeli airstrikes on Syrian targets that support Iran are nothing new, but they have increased recently. Two members of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were murdered in one strike on Friday. One of Syrian President Bashar al-closest Assad’s friends, Iran’s military has engaged in combat with the country’s opposition. This week’s other occurrences included reports in the Syrian state media of the deaths of two civilians and the injuries of five Syrian militaries. Israel claimed that a drone that had flown into Israeli airspace from Syria had been shot down.
What then will Iran respond with? Well, the specialists Maziar Motamedi consulted for his analysis suggested that they might want to wait before taking any action.
Imagine an invasion of Iraq
Our team at AJLabs has done extensive research on the aftermath of the battle, in particular, what happened to the millions of refugees and internally displaced people, as part of our continuing coverage of the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war. The figures are alarming, with the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) increasing throughout the war and then rising even more following the advent of ISIL (ISIS).
Now for something entirely different
Camel fighting A female nearby to keep their curiosity alive and two men fighting. It is a Turkish sport that is seen as a part of Turkish culture. As the only female camel wrestler on Turkey’s Aegean coast, Habibe Yuksel feels she is preserving the heritage and culture of her family. But, animal rights organizations disagree and label the procedure as cruel.
Weekly Quotation
Reuniting a mother and child is among the most priceless chores in the world. That meant a lot to us as well to be a part of that joy. Derya Yanik, Turkey’s minister of family and social services, following the reunion of a baby girl with her mother who had been wrongfully pronounced dead following the terrible earthquakes in February. The girl was separated from her family for 54 days after spending 128 hours trapped under the rubble.