The fire that swept through the Al-Aqsa Mosque 53 years ago was not the most dangerous threat against it, as the courageous Palestinians managed to extinguish it. But the real danger is the Israeli occupation forces and settlers’ daily violations against it. The Zionists’ daily storming of Al-Aqsa, the excavations under its foundations, and their attempts to divide it temporally and spatially are good cases in point.

Today marks the 53rd anniversary of burning the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has been subjected to violent attacks and ongoing Israeli violations.

Although fifty-three years have passed since the arson attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the flames are still engulfing it because the Israeli occupation’s systematic violations are dangerously accelerating, all committed with almost total impunity.

On August 21, 1969, the Australian Jewish extremist, Michael Dennis Rohan, set the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on fire. The fire swept through the Mosque, damaging its facades, ceilings, carpets, rare decorations, furniture, and copies of the holy Quran.

Among the landmarks that caught fire were the Omar Mosque, Zakaria’s Mihrab (sanctuary) next to Omar Mosque, the Mosque of the Forty Martyrs next to Zakaria’s Mihrab, three corridors, and seventy-four wooden windows.

More than a third of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (1500 square/meters of the total 4400 square/meters of the Mosque) was burnt.

The Israeli occupation forces cut the water supply immediately after the Mosque was set ablaze and barred hundreds of firefighters from reaching the area to put out the fire.

The planned attack provoked wrath and protests across the Muslim world. On the day after the arson, thousands of Muslims performed Friday prayers in the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and marched there.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque has always been subjected to a series of systematic Israeli violations, such as the temporal and spatial division schemes through the settlers’ daily incursions, let alone the increasing cases of deportation orders for Muslim worshippers from the Mosque for long periods, in a desperate attempt to break their determination.

Intending to tighten their grip on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, change its Islamic features, and divide it temporally and spatially, the Israeli occupation authorities continue their Judaization and settlement expansion schemes until they demolish it and build the alleged "temple" over its ruins.