The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) called on the Palestinian people to travel to and remain at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, intensifying their presence there in defense of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and to protect the site from attempts to alter its status and identity.
The movement made the appeal in a press statement issued today, Sunday, in which it condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s entry into the tunnels and excavations beneath the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Buraq Wall. Netanyahu is subject to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. Hamas also condemned the provocative statements and what it described as false claims concerning the so-called “Holy of Holies.”
Hamas stated that the incursion represents a blatant attack on the identity and status of Al-Aqsa Mosque and a provocation to the feelings of the Palestinian people and the Arab and Muslim worlds.
The movement stressed that the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, in its entirety, including its grounds, prayer halls, walls, and gates, will remain exclusively an Islamic mosque. It described this as an established fact and said that the occupation’s excavations, incursions, rituals, and attempts to impose its biblical narrative would not succeed in changing the identity of the site or erasing its features.
It added that what it described as the
“criminal enemy’s”
excavations, displays, and provocative statements, along with its attempts to impose new realities in Jerusalem and at Al-Aqsa Mosque, would not grant it any rights over the holy sites. Al-Aqsa Mosque, it said, will remain a witness to the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem and to the Palestinian people’s adherence to their rights to their land and holy sites.
Amid what it described as this dangerous escalation, Hamas called on the peoples of the Arab and Muslim world to assume their responsibilities toward Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque and to take action against attempts to impose new realities at Islamic holy sites.