Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Jews should be permitted to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque as he stormed the religious compound in occupied East Jerusalem with up to 2,000 Israeli settlers earlier today. Under the current status quo, non-Muslims are allowed to visit the holy site but are not allowed to pray there.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed an 18-year-old Palestinian during overnight raids. Elsewhere, Israeli settlers raided the Palestinian village of at-Tawani in large numbers.

Amid the mounting death toll and destruction, the U.S. State Department says it will resume funding to the Israeli military’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion after ending its probe into the ultra-Orthodox group. Despite acknowledging “gross human rights violations” against Palestinians, the U.S. State Department said the unit had done enough to improve their standing in recent months, and decided not to impose sanctions. Among other things, Netzah Yehuda was involved in the gruesome murder of a 78-year-old Palestinian American citizen, Omar Assad, near Ramallah in 2022.