JERUSALEM, March 6, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli police Sunday violently suppressed a rally organized by Palestinian women who have been banned by Israeli authorities from entering al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for various periods of time, under ‘security pretexts’.

WAFA correspondent reported that Israeli police quelled the rally using stun grenades against female protesters, however, no injuries were reported.

Dozens of Palestinian women have been protesting for months against being denied entry to al-Aqsa mosque; A sit in was first organized in the neighborhood of Bab al-Majles al-Islami, located in the very heart of Jerusalem‘s Old City, and was later moved  to the nearby Bab al-Amoud area.

Forces further detained one of the protesters who was identified as Hanadi al-Halawani, a Quran teacher who is also barred from entering the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

The Palestinian Territory, Gaza, and Israel, have been engulfed with a wave of violence since early October 2015, fueled by Israel’s unilateral enforcement of a temporal division on the mosque between Muslims and Jews.

Since then, at least 185 Palestinian, including 43 children, and nine women have been killed by Israeli forces’ fire since the outbreak of violence across the Palestinian territories in early October 2015, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israeli police secure the entry of Israeli settlers into the mosque’s compound almost on a daily basis, provoking tension with Muslim worshippers, who often respond by chanting religious slogans to protest their entry.

T.R