OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC)– One of the guards of the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem was assaulted on Monday by the Israeli occupation police for defending the Mosque and blocking fanatic Israeli settlers from desecrating it.
Eyewitnesses affirmed that at least 10 of the Israeli occupation police attacked the guard Mahmoud Al-Khatib and severely manhandled him for preventing them from entering the Muslim holy shrine before leading him for interrogation to a nearby detention center.
A colleague of Al-Khatib affirmed that the guard was determined to deny the fanatic settlers any access to the Mosque spurring a quarrel with police who later on ganged on and battered him.
Sheikh Ekrema Sabri Khatib (preacher) of the Mosque condemned the assault on the guard and described it as “deliberate” accusing the IOA of exploiting tourists’ visits to the Mosque to allow extremist Jews’ entry into it and carry out their religious rituals inside.
For his part Mufti of Palestine and Jerusalem Sheikh Mohammed Hussein deprecated the attack affirming that the IOA has banned around 25 guards of the Mosque from reporting to their jobs a number of them for more than two years now.
“The IOA is clearly carrying out a vicious campaign against the Mosque and its guards at a time it continues excavation works under the Mosque in a bid to level it to the ground” Hussein charged.
Moreover the Jerusalem-based Muslim Youths Society appealed to Arab and Muslim Ummah rulers and ruled to immediately mobilize their energies in defense of the Mosque.
“The Aqsa isn’t for Palestinians only; but it is an essential part of the Muslim faith which makes the defense of the Mosque a must on the entire Arab and Muslim Ummah” the society affirmed in a statement it issued and a copy of which was faxed to the PIC.
It also warned that the IOA is gradually planning attacks on the Mosque based on feedbacks on Arab and Muslim reactions towards its atrocities against the Mosque which according to the statement proved to be “feeble” so far.
