The Israeli occupation forces have carried out 2,200 arrests in the first quarter of 2023 in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, a Palestinian prisoners' rights organisation has reported. 

According to the Palestinian Prisoner Club, 1,200 of the total arrests were in occupied Jerusalem alone, including those detained from the Qibli Prayer Hall on Wednesday.

The Israeli occupation forces have carried out a frenzied attack on Palestinian worshippers in a pre-dawn raid on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, detaining at least 400 Palestinians on April 5.

Local sources reported that the Israeli occupation forces broke into the rooftop of the al-Qibli prayer hall in the compound and besieged the worshippers inside it.

Eyewitnesses reported that the Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque had seen an upsurge in violence by the Israeli occupation forces who broke into the Al-Qibli Prayer Hall to drive the Muslim worshippers out.

The Club pointed out that Jerusalem records the highest number of arrests monthly, as it witnesses daily confrontations with the occupation forces and is subjected to continued, brutal attacks.

The occupation forces have escalated their targeting of Palestinian citizens of occupied Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan in a bid to enforce spatial and temporal division schemes.

Some detainees are released on bail or on the condition that they pay fines, others are placed under house arrest, and some get banished from the Old City, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque.