A popular group supporting Egypt and the president denounced the storming of the Ibrahimi mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon amidst tight security measures.

In a statement on Tuesday, the group coordinator Safwat Abdel-Azim, called on the United Nations to protect the Islamic holy places in the Palestinian territories from the organized desecration at the hands of Israeli authorities and the settlers.

The group accused Israel of trying to drag the region into a religious war.

A knesset member had called on the government to facilitate the entry of Jews into Al Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem).

A number of Jewish extremists on Sunday raised Israeli flags outside the gates of occupied East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to the mosque’s Palestinian director.

Tension has been running high at Al-Aqsa since Sunday morning, with Israeli police imposing tight security measures at the compound’s entrances and scrutinizing worshipers’ identity cards before allowing them in.