AMMAN — The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has condemned the mounting violations and raids carried out
under heavy protection of Israeli police by radical settlers at Al-Aqsa
Mosque/Haram Al-Sharif complex, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
اضافة اعلان
The ministry’s spokesperson, Haitham Abu Alfoul, on
Monday said the escalation of violations and provocative practices at the
mosque and surrounding Islamic cemeteries are blatant and unacceptable
infringements of the international law and the legal and historical status quo
of Jerusalem and its sanctity.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its total area of 144 dunums,
is a place of worship for Muslims only, he said, noting that the Jordan-run
Jerusalem Awqaf and Aqsa Affairs Department is the sole authority mandated to
supervise its affairs and manage entry of individuals.
On Monday morning, Israeli forces imposed
restrictions at the gates of the mosque and prohibited the entrance of
Palestinians younger than 40, in preparation for a police-protected raid by
hundreds of radical settlers. Two Palestinians were injured and five others
were arrested during the storming.
On Monday, the
Lower House’s Foreign Affairs
Committee also denounced recurrent violations by Israeli extremists of Al-Aqsa
Mosque/Haram Al-Sharif in occupied Jerusalem, under the protection of Israeli
police.
The committee head, MP Khaldoun Heina, said the
ongoing breaches, provocations, and restrictions of entry of Muslim worshipers
into the mosque, one of Islam’s holiest shrines, is “a flagrant and
unacceptable violation of the international law and the historical and legal
status quo in Jerusalem and its holy places”.
He said the violations and attacks on the holy site
are a dangerous escalation, and urged Israel, as the occupying power, to
immediately cease all actions and attempts to change the existing historical
and legal status quo, impose a temporal and spatial division at Al-Aqsa, and
respect the Jerusalem religious Waqf authority that administers the holy
complex.
The Israeli media reported that Palestinians
scuffled with police in Jerusalem’s Old City Monday morning as “Jewish
visitors” toured what Israel calls the Temple Mount to mark the Jewish new
year.
According to Israeli police, a group of young
Palestinians barricaded themselves overnight in Al-Aqsa Mosque and started
launching fireworks from within as the visits began.
International correspondents in occupied East
Jerusalem reported that hundreds of ultranationalist Jews entered
Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, under the protection of Israeli authorities, for the second
day in a row, and that Israeli police attacked Palestinians gathered in the
compound, and prevented others from entering.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least
three Palestinians were injured on Monday by Israeli forces. Journalists
reported that 10 others were arrested in and around the compound.
Israeli forces were seen using batons to attack
Palestinian women and elderly men, as well as journalists.
Some of the ultranationalist Jews who entered, prayed
at the site, despite a general consensus among Orthodox Jews that Jewish prayer
is not allowed in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Al-Jazeera reported on Monday.
Jewish prayer at the site is seen as provocative by
Palestinians, and a reversal of a decades-long consensus to not allow the
practice.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian presidency condemned the
Israeli occupation forces’ and settlers’ storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa
Mosque, attacking Muslims praying there, and arresting a number of them.
Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that
the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by the settlers “is part of the Israeli
escalation against our people, their land and their holy sites”. He warned that
the continuation of these practices will lead to an explosion of the situation
and more tension and violence.
He added, that a number of settlers blowing trumpets at the
gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque in plain sight of the Israeli police is a dangerous
escalation in the series of continuous attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, and an
attempt to impose a new fait accompli.
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