The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas slammed Israel’s push for normalization with Arab countries for increased raids into al-Aqsa Mosque compound, as hundreds of Israeli settlers, under heavy protection by the regime forces, broke into the holy site on Sunday.
Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, blamed the increased incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Israeli prime minister’s recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly which focused on pushing for formal relations with Arab countries.
On Friday, morning Benjamin Netanyahu hailed recent so-called “normalization” deals between Israel and Arab states, claiming that Palestinians must not have a “veto” over such agreements.
“The Zionist escalation in al-Aqsa Mosque is a practical implementation of Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations, in which he bragged about the path of normalization and bet on separating the Arab world from the issue of Palestine and al-Aqsa,” Qassem said.
Qassem stressed that the possible normalization encourages the occupation to continue the religious war on al-Aqsa.
Palestinian media reports said the settlers, led by extremist rabbi and former Knesset member Yehudah Glick, entered the courtyards of the holy site in large numbers through the Moroccan Gate, also known as the Mughrabi Gate, and made a provocative tour of the premises.
The Islamic Endowment Department in al-Quds was cited by the Palestinian Shehab news agency as saying that 522 settlers provocatively performed rituals and Talmudic prayers in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in violation of the site’s status quo.
Safa News Agency, another Palestinian media, said the settlers performed provocative dances and songs at Bab al-Silsilah after leaving al-Aqsa and in front of Bab al-Qattanin, west of the mosque.
The occupation regime has deployed soldiers inside and around the mosque to secure the intrusion and prevent Palestinian worshipers from entering the holy site since morning
Extremist settlers’ groups had earlier called for the storming of al-Aqsa on the eve of the so-called Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.
Qassem described the raid as a “major and real escalation” and underlined that Palestinian people will continue their battle against the occupation and the settlers, and will remain a barrier against the occupation’s plans.
“There is a determination from all institutions of the Zionist entity to implement the temporal and spatial division of al-Aqsa Mosque, in order to end the Islamic presence in it,” Qassem said.
He urged the Muslim community to take action to stop the religious war against the holy site.
Israeli settler incursions into al-Aqsa Mosque and violence against Palestinians have been on the rise since the hardline cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office last December.
Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of Tel Aviv-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the Israeli police in al-Quds, leading to daily confrontations with Palestinians at the mosque, with many injured, arrested, and killed.
Non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited according to an agreement between Israel and Jordan following the regime’s seizure of East al-Quds in 1967.
