Israel's next target: Al-Aqsa Mosque after seizing control in West Bank

Following its recent administrative seizure of West Bank cities, Israel is now directing its efforts toward Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, raising alarms over a planned alteration of its Islamic character. A heavy Israeli police deployment in the city and escalating settler incursions into the holy compound signal a strategy of enforced spatial division, modeled after the earlier takeover of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.

The Hebron blueprint: from mosque to synagogue

The Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, one of Islam's four holiest sites, has been forcibly divided since 1997, with part of it converted into a synagogue under Israeli military control. Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has personally led raids on the mosque and removed Palestinian police officials. This systematic erosion of Islamic authority at a major holy site is seen as a direct precedent for Israel's actions in Jerusalem, providing a blueprint for imposing demographic and religious change through force and lawfare.

Assault on Al-Aqsa: raids and underground excavations

Despite international agreements placing Al-Aqsa under Jordanian Islamic custodianship, Israeli settler raids under police protection have become frequent, with 21 documented incursions in January alone. During these raids, settlers perform Talmudic rituals in clear violation of the historical status quo. Simultaneously, Israel continues extensive excavations beneath the mosque grounds, allegedly searching for Jewish temple remnants, a practice that physically threatens the stability of the Islamic holy site and aims to lay historical claim over it.

Demographic war and international inaction

Israel is accelerating its demographic war in Jerusalem, using discriminatory property laws to evict Palestinian families from neighborhoods like Silwan, adjacent to Al-Aqsa. This "Judaization" campaign seeks to cement Israeli control over all of Jerusalem. While U.S. President Donald Trump has verbally opposed West Bank annexation, his administration has taken no concrete action to prevent the systematic steps that are dismantling Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and threatening the future of Al-Aqsa Mosque.