WordPress tag auto close

WordPress corrects the html markup in posts and also in template specific files.
I’m working on a template and what I’m trying to achieve is wrap a div in <a href"#"></a> tag.

Before the foreach loop there is placed, then some more php and html markup and right before the foreach loop ends I paste in the ending tag .
What wordpress doeas it automatically adds the ending tag right after a href string tag, removes the correctly placed ending tag making the link empty.

He’re is what I type:

    <li <?php if (get_option('square_portfolio_filter') != "true") { ?> data-id="id-<?php echo $count; ?>" data-type="<?php foreach ($terms as $term) { echo strtolower(preg_replace('/s+/', '-', $term->name)). ' '; } ?>" <?php ; } ?>>
<a href="#">
    <div class="thumbs-animate">
        <?php
        if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
        the_post_thumbnail(array(255,191), array('title' => ''.get_the_title().''));
        }
        ?>  
        <div class="details">
            <h5><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h5>
            <p><?php content('15'); ?></p>
            <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
            <?php 
            if(get_option('square_view_project_link')!="") {
            echo get_option('square_view_project_link');
            }else {
            _e( 'View Project', 'square_lang' ); 
            }                                       
            ?>

        </div>
    </div>
</a>
</li>

And here is what WordPress ends up saving:

    <li <?php if (get_option('square_portfolio_filter') != "true") { ?> data-id="id-<?php echo $count; ?>" data-type="<?php foreach ($terms as $term) { echo strtolower(preg_replace('/s+/', '-', $term->name)). ' '; } ?>" <?php ; } ?>>
<a href="#"></a>
    <div class="thumbs-animate">
        <?php
        if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
        the_post_thumbnail(array(255,191), array('title' => ''.get_the_title().''));
        }
        ?>  
        <div class="details">
            <h5><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h5>
            <p><?php content('15'); ?></p>
            <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
            <?php 
            if(get_option('square_view_project_link')!="") {
            echo get_option('square_view_project_link');
            }else {
            _e( 'View Project', 'square_lang' ); 
            }                                       
            ?>

        </div>
    </div>
</li>

I temporarily fixed the issue using some javascript code but its neither good practice nor what I want to have:

onclick="location.href='<?php the_permalink();?>';" style="cursor:pointer;"