OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Hamas Movement called for broad public participation in activities planned for Friday in support of Occupied Jerusalem and Aqsa Mosque, particularly the “Great Dawn” campaign, in response to Israeli attacks and continuing policies aimed at Judaizing the holy sites.
Haroun Nasser al-Din, a member of Hamas’s political bureau and head of its Jerusalem Affairs Office, stressed in a statement Thursday the importance of increasing the Palestinian presence at Aqsa Mosque and maintaining worship there.
He called on Palestinians in Occupied Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Palestinian communities within the Green Line who can reach the Mosque to strengthen Palestinian presence within its courtyards.
Nasser al-Din said maintaining a presence in Jerusalem and Aqsa and participating in activities supporting them demonstrate the city’s central importance to Palestinians and to the Arab and Muslim worlds, as well as Palestinians’ determination to maintain their connection to the city in the face of Israeli escalation.
He urged religious scholars, mosque preachers, and community organizations to participate in the activities, encourage others to join, raise awareness of Aqsa Mosque’s religious significance, and mobilize solidarity with Occupied Jerusalem and its holy sites.
Nasser al-Din also called on governments, parliaments, peoples, and Arab, Islamic, and international organizations to assume their responsibilities and take action at various levels to stop Israeli attacks and measures that he said are intended to Judaize Aqsa and impose greater Israeli control over the site.
The call comes amid large-scale Israeli settler incursions into Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
The Islamic Waqf Department said approximately 1,895 Jewish settlers entered the Mosque compound on Thursday under Israeli police protection, while the Jerusalem Governorate reported that settlers raised an Israeli flag opposite the Dome of the Rock.
On Wednesday, 2,468 settlers stormed Aqsa, amid restrictions on Palestinian worshipers seeking to enter the Mosque and Israeli police facilitation of settler incursions and religious rituals inside the compound.
According to the Jerusalem Governorate’s quarterly report, 27,830 settler incursions into Aqsa Mosque were recorded during the third quarter of this year.
The same period saw an expansion of openly performed Jewish religious rituals at the site, including group prayers, prostration, blowing the shofar, and bringing plant offerings into the compound.
The Jerusalem Governorate also documented 63 exclusion orders from Aqsa Mosque during the quarter, affecting guards, employees, preachers, journalists, activists, and others.
