Dozens of heavily-armed Israeli occupation forces and extremist settlers stormed on Tuesday morning Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque—the third holiest site in Islam—and gathered in hordes at al-Rahma Gate. RNA - Media chief at the Islamic Awqaf Department, Firas al-Dabes, said Israeli police unlocked the gate outside of Bab al-Rahma building and closed off the area, Palinfo reported.
Al-Dabes added that the Israeli police ruled that a number of Palestinians detained in Monday clashes at the site be banned from al-Aqsa Mosque for periods of up to two weeks.
On Monday, Muslim worshipers smashed the iron locks and chains stealthily set up by Israeli police overnight at al-Rahma Gate. Israeli cops violently attacked the Muslim worshipers and arrested a number of them along with a woman from the Awqaf Maps Department.
Palestinian activists had launched calls for a mass participation in congregational prayers starting noon Monday in front of the Bab al-Rahma, protest Israel’s recent closure of the gate with locks and chains.
Raed D’ana, the imam of Beit Hanina Mosque, North of occupied Jerusalem, has, meanwhile, been held in Israeli custody since noontime on Monday. He was arrested on his way out of Bab al-Amoud.
Israeli forces broke into the Bab al-Rahma area from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and closed off the building next to the gate with locks in order to prevent the Waqf Department, which is in charge of Muslim property in occupied Jerusalem, including al-Aqsa Mosque, from using it.
The Hamas Movement has warned that the persistence in attacking the Muslim worshipers at the Aqsa Mosque and repeatedly closing its gates portends a near popular explosion against the Israeli occupation.
In a statement on Monday, Hamas affirmed that the history proved that the Aqsa Mosque was always the spark of the Palestinian intifada (uprising).
The Movement hailed the Palestinian citizens in Jerusalem for confronting the Israeli closure of al-Rahma Gate of the Mosque, which it described as a red line.
It expressed its belief that the shameful Arab normalization with the Israeli occupation encouraged the latter to escalate its aggression against the Mosque, calling on the Arab and Muslim peoples to rally around the Palestinian cause and stand against all Israeli attempts to penetrate them.
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