RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by a number of Israeli government officials, members of the Knesset, and extremist settlers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned a move by Israeli authorities to allow extremists to organize a provocative march in the city of Jerusalem with the protection of the Israeli defense forces. Waving flags and many chanting anti-Arab slogans, thousands of Israeli nationalists marched through annexed east Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, with main streets empty of Palestinians fearing attacks. The so-called Jerusalem Day flag march commemorates the Israeli army’s capture of the city’s eastern sector in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, home to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, which Jews call the Temple Mount. The Kingdom affirmed that these violations represented a “provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world, especially in light of the continuing war and acts of violence against defenseless Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories,” the ministry said in a statement. “The Kingdom also affirms that these systematic attacks are a clear violation of the relevant international resolutions, a violation of the historical and legal status of Jerusalem and its sanctities, and undermine efforts for a just and lasting peace through the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the ministry added. (With AFP)