Surrounded by grieving relatives, Palestinian women cries at the sight of the body of eight-year-old Aya killed by Israeli forces

Additional Reporting By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent   

GAZA CITY, September 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – One day after Israeli defense Minister threatened an invasion of the Gaza Strip, occupation forces staged on Monday, September 1, a fresh incursion into the central Gaza Strip on Monday shortly after sweeping into the compound of Al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s most holiest sites.

The Israeli army swept into the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and opened fire in the residential area, Palestinian security sources said.

The army had also established two roadblocks on the principal route through the Gaza Strip, the sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

An army spokesman denied the troops opened fire but confirmed roadblocks were erected on Saladin Road after four home-made rockets were allegedly fired by Palestinian activists from the southern Gaza Strip at the Neve Dekalim Jewish settlement, causing no damage or injury.

Storming Into Al-Aqsa

“We always have the option of a ground operation in Gaza," Mofaz

In the meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces swept the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sunday evening on claims to detain a local inhabitant who blocked a group of settlers from making prayers into.

“A number of the mosque’s guards and workers were injured in fierce clashes with Israeli police and so-called border guard units,” said Palestinian news agency. The official agency named one of the casualties as Jihad Al-Muhtaseb, 53. 

The mosque guards said the compound’s vicinity saw an intensive presence of Israeli occupation forces.

The officials of the Waqf, the Muslim authority in charge of mosque, called on Israeli soldiers to leave the holy site immediately as they are held accountable for the practices.

The old city in occupied Jerusalem is gripped by high tension, as local inhabitants rushed into the mosque and engaged in rows with Israeli forces. 

Waqf officials had earlier called on all Palestinians and Muslims to "protect the site from attempts of Jewish extremists to force their way into the compound".

The opening of the compound to tourists and Jews was seen by many as a herald to a new chapter of violence in a region already grappling with tension.

Mufti of occupied Jerusalem and Palestine, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, had told IOL the visits were made without prior approval of the Waqf.

Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out on September 28, 2000, in the wake of a provocative visit to the mosque by the then opposition leader Ariel Sharon.

Israeli police have banned issuing permits to Jews to have access to the mosque ever since.

Meanwhile, Israeli military sources said the army had overnight destroyed the family home in Al-Khalil of Taleb Mussa from the Fatah movement, held responsible for a series of anti-Israeli attacks.

They also said a Hamas local chief in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem was abducted early Monday, naming the man as Sufian Istiti.

Palestinian security sources confirmed the detention but said the 30-year-old blacksmith was merely a pious Muslim and not known for his affiliation to  resistance group Hamas.

A nine-year-old Palestinian girl was shot dead and five children wounded by Israeli troops in Khan Yunis refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, August 31.

‘Ground Operation Option’

The incursion came one day after Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz raised the specter of an Israeli invasion in the Gaza Strip.

"We always have the option of a ground operation in Gaza," Mofaz said.

"We will exercise it when we decide it is right to do so, at the appropriate time," he told reporters.

Israeli military commentators were quoted by Reuters as saying a ground offensive in the densely populated Gaza Strip, home to more than one million people under Palestinian control, would cause heavy Israeli and Palestinian casualties.