JERUSALEM - Dozens of Jewish settlers and policemen on Thursday forced their way into East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to a Palestinian official.

“Forty-one Jewish settlers and 81 retired officers -- backed by Israeli soldiers -- forced their way into the mosque compound through Al-Aqsa’s Al-Mugharbah Gate,” Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem’s Religious Endowments Authority, told Anadolu Agency.  In a fresh escalation, several retired officers entered the iconic Dome of the Rock Mosque after making a brief tour of the mosque’s courtyard, according to al-Dibs.

For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa represents the world’s third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount”, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times. Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.