The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has warned that any Israeli attempt to impose division at the al-Aqsa Mosque will have “damaging consequences” for the occupying regime.
In a statement issued on Friday on the 31st anniversary of the Aqsa massacre, which was committed by Israeli forces, the resistance movement strongly warned the Tel Aviv regime of committing any attempt to change the status quo of the al-Aqsa compound, the third holiest site in Islam.
“We restate our commitment to protect and defend the al-Aqsa Mosque on the 31st anniversary of the Al-Aqsa massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation, motivated by Israeli settler groups who thought the Al-Aqsa compound was an easy prey and that the chance had come up to lay the foundation stone for their alleged temple,” Hamas stated.
On October 8, 1990, thousands of Israeli settlers marched on the al-Aqsa Mosque to place the foundation stone of their alleged third temple inside the mosque.
The provocative move infuriated Palestinians who were present at the mosque and those who were outside, prompting them to bar settlers from achieving their goal.
During the ensued clashes, Israeli forces opened fire indiscriminately at Muslim worshipers in the mosque, killing 21 people, injuring hundreds of others, while obstructing the movement of ambulances.
Other reports said the fanatic settlers, while receiving full protection from Israeli soldiers, also participated in the massacre with their machine guns and gas bombs, as helicopters provided air cover. The appalling event is known as the Al-Aqsa Massacre or the Black Monday.
“Attempts to impose temporal and spatial division at the al-Aqsa compound will have damaging consequences for the Israeli occupation,” the statement further read.
Hardline Israeli legislators and extremist settlers regularly storm the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied city, a provocative move that infuriates Palestinians. 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.
The al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza, houses both the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa is permitted, but according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government in the wake of Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.
“As Israeli settler organizations are trying to make history repeat itself by desecrating the sanctity of the al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of the Israeli occupation regime, we reiterate that the Palestinian citizens of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 are ready to defend the al-Aqsa complex and that Israeli measures provoked by a hateful ideology against holy sites will backfire,” Hamas said on Friday.
In conclusion, the resistance movement urged all “the Arab and Muslim nations to raise their voices in support of the al-Aqsa Mosque and use Friday sermons as a platform for calling for liberating the al-Aqsa and renounce normalization” of relations between Tel Aviv and some Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.
“The al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to all Muslims by right; every Muslim has a duty to defend it and protect its sanctity,” Hamas stressed.
Palestinians want the occupied West Bank as part of their future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.
