AL-QUDS (Dispatches) -- An Israeli judge’s conclusion this week that “quiet” Jewish prayer should be allowed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, revered by Muslims, has stirred Palestinian furor over the Al-Quds flashpoint.
Al-Aqsa is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, falling within Israeli-occupied East Al-Quds, but administered by the Waqf Islamic affairs council.
The Waqf called the Tuesday ruling by Al-Quds magistrates’ court judge Billha Yahalom an illegitimate “provocation,” while Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh warned the occupying regime against any moves to enforce it.
Even the Zionist regime’s police have appealed the decision. The presence of Zionist extremists at Al-Aqsa Mosque has long been a rallying cry across the Muslim world.
On Thursday, settlers broke into the compound to “perform silent prayers” through the mosque’s Bab al-Amoud Gate, which is also known as the Damascus Gate.
According to Palestinian media, over 60 settlers stormed the site as they shouted anti-Islam slogans. The Quds News Network said a Bahraini delegation partook in the raid, adding its members performed rituals alongside the settlers and took pictures at al-Buraq Wall.
In May this year, clashes over possible evictions in a nearby Palestinian neighborhood spread to the mosque compound, sparking an Israeli crackdown that escalated into an 11-day war between the occupying regime and Palestinian resistance movements in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, they issued a statement saying the decision to grant Jewish people the right to so-called “silent” prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a dangerous violation of Islamic sanctities.
The “wicked” decision, they said, will pave the way for the Israeli conspiracy to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque between Muslims and Jews, and allow extremist settlers to continue their aggression against the third holiest site in Islam.
The resistance movements said Al-Aqsa Mosque lies at the heart of Muslims’ religious beliefs, and that Palestinians will not compromise on even an inch of their lands and the sacred site.
They called for a large congregation inside the compound to show their strong opposition to the “oppressive” court ruling.
Hamas decried the court decision as a “blatant aggression” against the sacred site, and a clear declaration of a war against Islam and its sanctities.
“The Occupation continues its sinister policies and plans to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound both in terms of time and space. The move also paves the way for further incursions and desecrations by Zionists,” the group said.
It emphasized that any act of aggression against Al-Aqsa Mosque would exacerbate the current volatile situation, and will have a spillover effect on the occupying regime.
Hamas warned that Operation Sword of Al-Quds in May will not be the last battle for Al-Quds, and that the “resistance is ready to repel any aggression and defend Palestinian rights.
“We call on our Palestinian compatriots in Al-Quds and elsewhere across the occupied lands to converge en masse on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to confront the Israeli occupation’s partition plans and growing intrusions into the site,” it said.
Muslim leaders reacted to the court ruling with unanimous condemnation.
“These prayers constitute provocations and a violation of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa,” mosque director Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani told AFP.
“This decision also has no legitimacy because we do not recognize Israeli law on Al-Aqsa,” he said.
The Saudi Arabia-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation strongly condemned “the decision of the so-called Israeli ‘Al-Quds Court.’”