In a statement, Hamas said the escalating incursions and Talmudic rituals by Israeli settlers represent a dangerous attempt to alter the mosque’s historical and legal status, with the Israeli occupation regime providing police protection and political backing.
Hamas said the violations have progressed from settler incursions to prayer, prostration, blowing the shofar, singing, dancing, reciting Talmudic texts and bringing offerings into the mosque compound, while Israeli ministers and Knesset members have also participated in efforts to institutionalize Jewish prayer there.
The movement warned that the Israeli regime and extremist groups known as “Temple-building groups” are seeking to move from imposed incursions to imposed rituals and ultimately establish a new religious and political reality targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque’s Islamic identity and historical status.
Meanwhile, Haroun Nasser al-Din, a member of Hamas’ political bureau and head of its al-Quds affairs office, warned of a settler plan to establish a Jewish temple inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in the coming period.
Nasser al-Din said the ongoing settler attacks are part of a systematic plan to alter the Islamic character of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City of occupied al-Quds, adding that the plan would fail through the steadfastness and resistance of al-Quds’s residents.
He also warned that orders barring Palestinians from Al-Aqsa Mosque have approached 1,000 this year, while thousands of Palestinians have effectively been expelled from al-Quds, preventing them from reaching the Old City and the mosque.
Hamas called on Palestinians, particularly al-Quds residents and those in the occupied territories, to increase their presence at Al-Aqsa and confront the Israeli regime’s plans, while urging Arab and Islamic governments and institutions, as well as the international community and the United Nations, to take immediate action to protect the mosque and prevent the occupation from imposing new realities there.