OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Hamas Movement has condemned the Israeli occupation police’s recent recommendation calling for restricting the access of Muslim worshipers to the Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan, calling it a “dangerous precedent” and a “measure targeting the freedom of worship.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas said that the Israeli plan to allow only 10,000 Muslim worshipers to perform the Friday prayer at the Aqsa Mosque is a “new escalation against the Palestinian people and their holy sites.”
“This is a blatant violation of all norms, treaties and divine laws, a direct provocation to the feelings of Muslims, and a desperate attempt to impose alleged control over the Aqsa Mosque,” Hamas added.
Hamas affirmed that Israel’s aggressive schemes against the Aqsa Mosque would never succeed in changing its identity and history.
“The Aqsa Mosque will remain purely Islamic property with no place for the occupation. Our people are ready to sacrifice their lives to protect it until it is fully liberated and purged from the occupation’s desecration,” the Movement said.
The Movement appealed to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the international community to take serious action to put an end to Israel’s violations against the Aqsa Mosque and to work on enabling the Palestinian people to enter and pray at their Mosque without any restrictions.
In a related incident, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi Yehuda Glick desecrated the Aqsa Mosque’s courtyards along with other settlers on Wednesday morning.
Glick was among dozens of settlers who entered the Mosque through al-Maghariba Gate and toured its courtyards in different groups under tight police protection.
126 settlers, including religious students, defiled the Mosque in the morning, according to the Islamic Awqaf Administration in the holy city,
During their tours at the Islamic holy site, the settlers received lectures from rabbis about the alleged temple mount and a number of them provocatively performed Talmudic prayers.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation police imposed movement and entry restrictions on Muslim worshipers at the Aqsa Mosque’s entrances and gates.
