‘Red line’: World reaction to Israeli attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque
Israeli occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied Jerusalem for the second night in row overnight and assaulted Palestinian worshippers, Anadolu has reported.
Witnesses said that the Israeli occupation forces raided Al-Qibli Prayer Hall in the Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa after the late-night tarawih prayers, fired stun grenades and assaulted the Muslim worshippers. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Jerusalem said that its medical teams inside Al-Aqsa Mosque complex treated six people, two of whom were transferred to hospital.
After the Israeli occupation police attacked the Palestinians inside Al-Qibli Prayer Hall and detained around 450 worshippers from inside the mosque overnight on Tuesday, the occupation forces escorted hundreds of Israeli Jewish settlers as they walked around the sanctuary on Wednesday morning. All of Israel’s settlements and the settlers who live in them are illegal under international law.
Al-Aqsa is Islam’s third-holiest site on earth. Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where the sanctuary is located in the Old City, in 1967. The whole occupied city of Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in 1980, in a move that is not recognised under international laws and conventions prohibiting the acquisition of territory through armed conflict.
Armed Israeli police stormed the prayer hall of Al-Aqsa Mosque, attacking Palestinian worshippers for the second night in a row.
Videos from the holy site have begun to emerge, showing a scene reminiscent of the night earlier, when Israeli police armed with batons, tear gas grenades and smoke bombs, burst into the mosque and beat worshippers, including women.
Six Palestinians injured, according to Palestinian Red Crescent
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said that at least six Palestinians have been injured by Israeli police who have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israeli forces are using stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas, videos emerging from the site are showing.
Acts in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound a ‘red line’
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier condemned the Israeli police raid overnight on Wednesday, calling such acts in the mosque compound a “red line” for Turkey.
“I condemn the vile acts against the first qibla of Muslims in the name of my country and people, and I call for the attacks to be halted as soon as possible,” Erdogan said.
“The name of this is the politics of repression, the politics of blood, the politics of provocation. Turkey can never remain silent and unmoved in the face of these attacks. Putting a hand on Al-Aqsa Mosque and trampling on its sanctity is a red line for us.”
Read more on how the world reacted to Israel’s attack on Al Aqsa Mosque.
PA spokesman: Israeli raid into Al-Aqsa ‘slap to US efforts’ to establish calm
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has said: “Israel’s raid into Al-Aqsa mosque, its assault on worshippers, is a slap to recent US efforts which tried to create calm and stability during the month of Ramadan.”
Abu Rudeineh is referring to the summits held in the Egyptian and Jordanian towns of Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba respectively, where officials from the US, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan agreed on a series of steps to de-escalate violence in the occupied territories.
Arab League holds emergency meeting, condemns Israeli action
The Arab League — a regional organisation that includes 22 member countries — is holding an emergency meeting on the raids at Al-Aqsa mosque.
Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary general of the Arab League, told Al Jazeera, “We lay the blame totally and squarely on the Israeli government.”
“We are going to work, politically and diplomatically, to expose what Israel has been doing,” he continued.
“It’s not that we need another excuse from the Israeli occupation forces to storm in the Al-Aqsa mosque. They never run out of excuses. They always tell you that there will be youth barricading, amassing guns and so on. We’ve heard it so many times. It is almost irrelevant at this point. This is a government that is bent on harming the Palestinian population.”
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
