According to Hebrew media, several members of the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, have been officially granted permission to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Thousands of young Orthodox Jewish men are also expected to provocatively parade through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter.

The march organizers expect a record number of participants – as many as 100,000 – to take part in the parade commemorating the 1967 capture of East Jerusalem and its subsequent occupation, or the “reunification” of Jerusalem, as the Israeli government refers to it.

An impending conflagration is expected to be sparked by settlers’ invasion of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

This development comes in the wake of the 2021 Sword of Jerusalem Battle, which erupted as a response to the Flag March and Israeli violations in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem. The tensions that ensued during that period underscored the delicate nature of the situation surrounding the mosque.

Between the evening of 10 May and dawn of May 2021, the Israeli occupation launched a military aggression against the Gaza Strip, killing 240 Palestinians including 151 civilians and 59 children.

The Jerusalem flag march “is one of the strongest examples of racist nationalistic and state-sponsored celebrations”, according to Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the human rights organization Ir Amin.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque, located in Jerusalem, is considered the third holiest site in Islam, making it a focal point for Muslim worship and a symbol of their deep-rooted heritage.