Situation in West Bank Tense

Zionist Court Orders Closure of al-Aqsa’s Bab al-Rahma

Date: 17 March 2019 - 21:26

News ID: ۶۴۳۶۵

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – An Israeli court has ordered the temporary closure of Bab al-Rahma (Gate of Mercy) prayer area at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of al-Quds amid recent tensions surrounding the highly sensitive holy site.
The al-Quds Magistrate's Court announced on Sunday that it had accepted a request by the Zionist regime’s officials to close the gate while the case continues.
The Islamic Waqf (Endowment) Organization, which manages the compound's affairs, was also granted 60 days to appeal the decision.
Hatem Abdel Qader, a member of the Waqf Council, said the council does not recognize the Zionist regime’s court’s decision regarding Bab al-Rahma, and that it is an integral part of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The Waqf said in a statement on Saturday that it wants to carry out renovations at the building, but will keep it open during that time for Palestinians who wish to pray there.
It further noted that far-right Zionist settlers were seeking to take over Bab al-Rahma.
Prayer area of the al-Rahma Gate was closed on February 25 upon an order by Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and reopened the following day.
The regime had closed the gate that leads to the prayer space in al-Aqsa Mosque since 2003 in the face of the Second Intifada (uprising) against the regime’s occupation.
On February 22, however, the Waqf council decided to re-open the prayer space at the Bab al-Rahma Gate in defiance of Israel’s 16-year-old ban. Hundreds of worshipers, led by the Grand Mufti of al-Quds Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, entered the area for the first time since 2003 for Friday prayers.

One Zionist Killed in ‘Stabbing, Shooting’

Meanwhile, the Zionist regime’s military says one Zionist man has been killed and two others have been wounded in alleged shooting and stabbing attacks in the West Bank.
The attacks occurred southwest of Nablus, and the occupying regime said they were believed to have been carried out by a Palestinian.
"One Israeli is dead,” Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, adding that the assailant "appears to be Palestinian.”
Israeli media earlier reported that an assailant stabbed a regime trooper and managed to take his gun and drive to the Gitai Avishar junction, where he allegedly shot other people.
Palestinian media reported that the Zionist regime’s military raided an area near the Palestinian village of Burqin in their search for the assailant.
Tensions have been running high in the West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip since December 2017, when U.S. President Donald Trump decided to recognize al-Quds as the Zionist regime’s "capital” and moved Washington’s embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Palestinian city.
While the Zionist regime had already been taking increasingly harsh measures against Palestinians, it has been emboldened by the Trump administration’s move.
The regime’s military regularly opens fatal fire on Palestinians, accusing them of seeking to stab its personnel.
Human rights groups have repeatedly slammed the Tel Aviv regime for its shoot-to-kill policy as a large number of the Palestinians killed at the scene of attacks did not pose any serious threat to Israelis.

Palestinian Muslim worshippers take part in the Friday prayer next to the Gate of Mercy (unseen in the picture) inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of al-Quds on March 15, 2019 with the Dome of the Rock mosque, left, in the background.