Jerusalem, 18 April, 2022 (TPS) — Muslim vandals blocked early Sunday morning the paths on the Temple Mount on which the Jewish visitors usually traverse with rocks metal polls, and ancient artifacts, some apparently dating to the Second Temple era some 2,000 years ago.

The police securing the holy site did not clear the paths after they were blocked, and the Jewish visitors who came to the holy site on Sunday and Monday, during the Passover holiday, were forced to take a different route.

Activists from the “Beyadenu – for the Temple Mount” organization reported that some of the materials used to block the Jews’ paths included parts of ornamented columns that were apparently once used to adorn the Temple site.

Tom Nisani, CEO of Beyadenu – for the Temple Mount, told TPS that “this is another disaster and the destruction of the Jewish heritage on the Temple Mount. Antiquities are thrown into the field without any treatment, abandoned to terrorists on the mountain.”

The Waqf, conducting illegal renovations on the Temple Mount, routinely and systematically dump artifacts unearthed on the Temple Mount, some thousands of years old with paramount significance to archeology, history, and the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.

In an attempt to salvage some of these lost findings, the Temple Mount Sifting Project was established in 2004 in response to the illegal removal of 5,210 tons of antiquities-rich earth from the Temple Mount by the Islamic Waqf.

About half a million artifacts have been pulled from the rubble so far, including 5,000 ancient coins.