The 1,160 attackers visited various locations on the Esplanade of the Mosques, which is also where the Dome of the Rock is located, amid heavy security measures, reported the Palestinian agency Wafa. According to Wafa, the soldiers who followed the Jewish extremists prevented the free movement of Muslim worshipers, who were asked to show their identification documents. This invasion coincided with the traditional Birkat Kohanim, a mass Jewish priestly blessing that takes place in the middle of Pesach or Passover and gathers thousands of Jews at the Western Wall. On these dates, it is common for Jewish worshipers to try to enter the Esplanade of the Mosques, despite the discomfort that such incursions cause in the Muslim community. According to their religious laws, Jews cannot pray inside the Esplanade of the Mosques, or the Temple Mount, for them, because it is believed that the Second Temple was built there, the holiest place for Judaism, where only some rabbis can pray. For this reason, Jews pray from the nearby Western Wall, facing the site where the temple was located. However, in recent decades, in parallel with the rise of religious Zionism, more and more rabbis have been encouraging believers to enter the Esplanade of the Mosques to pray, violating the 'status quo' agreed upon by Israel with Jordan in 1967, according to which only Muslims can pray at that location. Tensions between Jews and Muslims have been at a high point since October 7th of last year, when fighters from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) -- in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel -- carried out an attack in Israeli territory of unprecedented proportions since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, killing 1,163 people, mostly civilians. They also took 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in captivity and 34 have died in the meantime, according to the latest report from the Israeli authorities. In retaliation, Israel declared a war to "eradicate" Hamas, which today entered its 202nd day, continuing to threaten to spread throughout the Middle East region, and has so far killed more than 34,000 people in the Gaza Strip, more than 77,000 wounded and thousands of missing people presumably buried in the rubble, mostly civilians, according to updated figures from local authorities. The conflict has also displaced almost two million people, plunging the overcrowded and poor Palestinian enclave into a serious humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.1 million people in a "catastrophic hunger situation" that is already claiming victims - "the highest number ever recorded" by the UN in studies on food security in the world. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories occupied by the Jewish state, at least 482 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th by Israeli forces and in attacks carried out by settlers, in addition to more than 3,000 wounded and almost 7,000 arrests. The Jewish settlements in the West Bank, where more than 490,000 Israelis reside -- and which continue to expand -- are all illegal under international law. Also read: Middle East. European Union sanctions extremist Israeli settlers (Portuguese version)