News - Middle East: Israel's far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, escorted by the regime’s forces, has stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds, the third such desecration in less than a year.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Ben-Gvir broke into the compound through the Moroccan Gate on Thursday and wandered around the eastern square under the protection of a large number of occupation police officers.

The agency cited local sources as saying that the Israeli forces prevented Palestinian worshipers from entering al-Aqsa Mosque, coinciding with Ben-Gvir's storming of the holy mosque.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site for Muslims.

Under an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government in the wake of the regime’s occupation of al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the holy compound is prohibited. But the ban is a mere phrase and, in action, circumstances have been against Muslims as Israeli settlers frequent the holy mosque.

Ben-Gvir’s intrusion into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound takes place as the regime has been keeping its bloody war machine going in the Gaza Strip since October last year, with hopes of a long-awaited ceasefire agreement fading after more than nine months of barbaric onslaught on the Palestinian territory.

During his raid on Thursday, the extremist Israeli minister said he had gone up to the hilltop compound of the al-Aqsa Mosque to pray for the return of the the regime’s prisoners in Gaza "but without a reckless deal.”

Ben-Gvir also said he was pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to give in to international pressure and to continue with the military campaign in the besieged territory.

UNICEF: 90% of Gazans displaced due to Israeli war

The United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that 90 percent of people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced since October last year and “many of them are children.”

“Places where people are being forced to move lack basic necessities and safety,” the agency stressed in a post on X. “UNICEF continues to call for an end to all hostilities and a lasting ceasefire.”

The Tel Aviv regime has killed over 38,840 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza, since October 7, 2023.

Since the start of the war, the United States has supplied Israel with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment and used its veto power against all UN Security Council resolutions that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Despite the unabated campaign of bloodletting, the occupying regime has so far fallen short of realizing its two main “goals”, namely defeating and eliminating Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, and releasing Israeli captives.