Jerusalem – Ma'an – A top official urged Palestinians from Jerusalem and inside Israel to converge on the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday in order to confront an expected Israeli settler incursion at the holy site.

Hatem Abdul Qader, a Fatah lawmaker and former minister of Jerusalem Affairs in the Palestinian Authority government, said that the Israeli government is “playing with fire” if it allows far-right Jewish groups to harm the mosque in any way.

Ma’an’s correspondent reported that Israeli police have increased their presence at the gates of the Al-Aqsa compound since Wednesday night. Right-wing Israelis were seen praying just outside the gates.

Thursday is the Jewish holy day of Tisha B’av (the ninth of the month of Av), which marks the destruction of the first and second temples, the ruins of which are believed to lie beneath the present-day Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock Mosque. The Israeli settler movement has appropriated the holiday, using it also to lament the removal of settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Believed to be the location where the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven during his Night Journey, Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam. The compound, with the golden Dome of the Rock, is a focal point of Palestinian national pride. It is especially sensitive because some extremist Jewish groups seek the demolition of the mosques and the construction of a “Third Temple.”