Palestinian lawmaker: In harming al-Aqsa Mosque, Israel playing with fire

Israeli forces fire tear gas to disperse Palestinians after clashes inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem al-Quds’ Old City, July 27, 2017. (File photo by AFP)

A Palestinian lawmaker has denounced Israel’s restrictive and provocative measures at al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, saying the regime is “playing with fire.”

Ahmed Attoun, a legislator from al-Quds, recently described the Mosque as “a red line” and warned that the occupying regime had burned itself and adopted a policy of self-destruction. He said the Palestinian resistance would always be ready to repel Israeli aggression against the holy site.

“The occupation imposes millions of Shekels on the Jerusalemites, demolishes their homes, and forces them to pay exorbitant taxes and fines. All its institutions, including its security agencies, agree on persecuting the Jerusalemite citizen,” the lawmaker said.

He also defined Israel’s policy of Judaization of East al-Quds, its settlement expansion, and the forced displacement of Palestinian families as “a naked aggression and an open war.”

Over 560 Israeli settlers storm Aqsa Mosque in occupied al-Quds

“The occupation is waging an open war against our identity and existence, and is trying to falsify the history and visual identity of al-Quds through its settlement construction in the Old City and near the al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Israeli legislators and settlers regularly intrude into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, infuriating 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.

In May 2021, frequent acts of violence against Palestinian worshipers at the al-Aqsa Mosque led to an 11-day war between Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli regime, during which the regime killed at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children.

Palestinians want the occupied West Bank as part of their future independent state and view al-Quds’ eastern sector as the capital of their future sovereign state.