JERUSALEM, November 2, 2014 (WAFA) – With tension in Jerusalem on the rise, Moshe Feiglin, a Jewish far-right member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, broke into al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday morning in a provocative visit under heavy police protection.

Feiglin Saturday announced that he will break into the mosque to conduct rituals and pray for the recovery of Israeli far-right extremist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, 50, who was shot on Wednesday by Palestinian Mu’taz Hijazi, during an annual event organized by the ‘Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement’ in Jerusalem.

WAFA correspondent said despite a continuing Israeli ban on the entry of Palestinians under the age of 40 to the mosque compound, large numbers of worshipers were able to enter the compound in the morning. Worshipers chanted religious slogans to protest Feiglin’s entry to the mosque.

The recent visit comes at a time of mounting tension in the holy city; on October 30, Israeli police closed all the gates leading to al-Aqsa compound for the first time since Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

The first-of-its-kind closure since 1967 came just hours after Israeli police and undercover forces raided al-Thuri neighborhood in Jerusalem and shot Mu‘taz Hijazi, 32, in the back and left him to bleed to death on the rooftop of his house.

M.N./T.R.