Figure second-highest on record, Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism says CAIRO: Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism said that 50,098 Israeli settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque during the course of 2023, the second-highest number of such incursions on record. The worst single incident happened during the Jewish holidays in October, when more than 8,000 settlers stormed the courtyards of the mosque under the protection of Israeli forces, assaulting worshippers and forcing them to leave, it said. Since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, the highest number of incursions into the mosque in a single year was 51,483 in 2022. SPEEDREAD The worst single incident happened during the Jewish holidays in October, when more than 8,000 settlers stormed the courtyards of the mosque under the protection of Israeli forces, assaulting worshippers and forcing them to leave, the Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism said. The observatory said that the high number of attacks were evidence of a concerted effort by Israel to exert control over the mosque. This, however, was a holy place for Muslims and any such plans were rejected. The incursions, like the “genocide and displacement of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” was a blatant attack on the Islamic nation, it said. The observatory seeks to promotes the true Islamic religion and its messages of moderation, tolerance and human brotherhood.