Egypt condemned on Sunday the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by an Israeli minister accompanied by a group of extremist elements, stressing that such provocative acts are contrary to the wisdom and responsibility of officials.
Egypt also stressed that the successive incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, aimed at consolidating the policy of temporal and spatial division, will not change the legal and historical status quo, in which Al-Aqsa is considered an exclusively Islamic position.
It called on the Israeli side to immediately stop the escalatory practices that are fueling the tension already existing in the occupied territories.
For its part, the Arab League condemned the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque by Ben Gufir, as well as the Israeli occupation government’s weekly meeting inside the tunnels of Al Buraq Square in Al Aqsa Mosque, which comes within the framework of the escalating Israeli attempts to change the situation.
The Arab League said in a statement that this intrusion, which the Israeli minister is committing for the second time, is condemnable and represents a dangerous escalation that aims to ignite a cycle of violence and tension and to ignite the whole region. The Israeli government bears full responsibility for its consequences. It stressed that the Al-Aqsa Mosque in its entire area is a place of pure worship for Muslims and that any measures taken by Israel are null and void and do not entail any right.
Dozens of hardcore Israeli settlers led by hard-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir broke Sunday morning into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem under heavy police protection.
Following Ben-Gvir’s incursion into the holy site, more groups of Israeli Jewish settlers were allowed into the compound and stayed there for some time, where they performed rituals under police protection.
Since 2003, the Israeli occupation authorities have been allowing settlers into the compound almost daily, with the exclusion of Friday, the Muslim day of rest and worship.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, described hard-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s incursion Sunday into Al-Aqsa Mosque as a blatant attack on the holy site that will have serious consequences.
“Attempts by Itamar Ben Gvir and his likes of extremists to change the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque are condemned and rejected and will fail.
The presidential spokesperson said: “Extremist Ben-Gvir’s incursion at an early hour, like thieves, into the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards will not change the reality and will not impose Israeli sovereignty over it.”
“Harming Al-Aqsa Mosque is playing with fire, and will push the region into a religious war with unimaginable consequences that will affect everyone,” he concluded.
