AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime has demolished one of the oldest Muslim graveyards in the occupied holy city of Al-Quds, reported Wafa news agency.
The head of the Committee for the Preservation of Islamic Cemeteries in Al-Quds, Mustafa Abu Zahra, said the occupying regime sent teams, accompanied by a bulldozer, and destroyed a grave from the Al Yousifieh Cemetery, and scattered the bones.
He added that among the graves demolished were those of Muslims who were martyred in the conflicts between 1948 and 1967, and that the Zionist regime will face legal action in response to the municipality’s actions.
According to Wafa, Palestinians who were present in the area blocked the bulldozer from destroying the graves further and forced it out of the area.
Abu Zahra called on all people in Al-Quds to “unite in order to protect Al-Quds’ landmarks from the Israeli occupation’s oppression”.
The cemetery, located next to the wall surrounding the Old City, is one of the oldest Muslim graveyards in occupied Al-Quds and is about 4,000 square meters.
The demolition is part of the occupying regime’s plan to build a “Biblical garden path” inside the cemetery.
It’s a step that has angered many residents of East Al-Quds who have loved ones buried in that cemetery.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the move, saying the event organized by American Zionist groups desecrates the historic Muslim graveyard and violates international law.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it considers the ceremony a provocative attack on the Muslim cemetery and a flagrant violation of international law and conventions.
International organizations should condemn and put a stop to the continuous violations of Palestinian political, cultural, historical, legal and religious rights in the Al-Quds, the future capital of the Palestinian state, it added.
Palestine’s Chief Islamic Justice Mahmoud al-Habbash said in a statement that the ceremony constitutes a full-fledged war crime as it constitutes a blatant assault on the remains of Palestinian ancestors and a grave insult to all Muslims.