OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)
The researcher specialized in Jerusalem affairs, Fakhri Abu Diyab, revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities have dug new tunnels and carried out excavation operations under the western wall of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, heading towards the Sharaf lane and the Bab Al-Khalil area adjacent to the Mosque.
The evidence of these excavations, which are still ongoing day and night, is the closure of the targeted area by the occupation authorities and the prevention of Jerusalemites from entering it for several months, in addition to the presence of several vehicles and bulldozers in the area, according to the Safa agency.
Since the beginning of 2024 – as Abu Diyab says – the occupied city of Jerusalem has witnessed a major escalation in the excavations carried out by the occupation authorities under the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings, which include the disfigurement of Islamic and Arab landmarks in the city.
Tampering and forgery
He explains that the targeted area of the new excavations and tunnels is adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on its western and southwestern sides, and is witnessing the biggest process of forgery, obliteration and tampering in history since the occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem.
Abu Diyab revealed 22 new excavations being carried out by the occupation institutions since the beginning of the current year around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in addition to many Arab, Islamic and Christian landmarks in Jerusalem that the occupation is working to change, obliterate and demolish, and steal their stones and divert them to unknown places.
These landmarks include ancient Arab and Islamic temples, mosques and shrines underground with an architectural style dating back to the Ayyubid, Mamluk and Islamic periods, all of which indicate the identity and history of the Holy City.
This indicates that among these excavations are 3-4 new tunnels that the occupation is working on, and they are headed from the Sharaf lane and the Buraq Wall area, reaching all the way to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
He emphasized that the occupation authorities are clearly exploiting the world’s and the various media’s preoccupation with the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip to isolate Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, through excavations, the construction of tunnels, and the expansion of the existing ones beneath the Mosque and in its surroundings.
Through these excavations, the occupation and its Judaizing institutions – according to Abu Diyab – are working to change the architectural style and urban landscape in those areas, and to fabricate Jewish landmarks that are meant to prove a Jewish civilization and misleading narratives.
Abu Diyab pointed out that the occupation has worked and continues to destroy the ancient Arab antiquities in the region, which contain dozens of buildings, endowments, and historical real estates from successive historical eras such as the Umayyad, Ayyubid, and Ottoman periods.
He indicated that the occupation authorities have prevented Jerusalemites and journalists from accessing that area since last October 7th, and have imposed strict security measures on it, in order to isolate it and carry out those excavations.
After about five months of research and investigation attempts, the researcher Abu Diyab was able to reach the targeted area with difficulty, and find out what is going on inside it in terms of Israeli activities, as a result of the strict restrictions and closures imposed by the occupation authorities on access to it.
The largest of its kind
These excavations have become more dangerous to the Al-Aqsa Mosque than before, as they are supported by the occupation’s Ministry of Finance, headed by the extremist Bezalel Smotrich, the Minister of National Security, the extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, as well as the occupation municipality in Jerusalem, and the so-called “Jerusalem Heritage” ministry.
The researcher confirmed that these extremists are working assiduously to erase the Arab and Islamic landmarks on a large scale and plant alien Jewish landmarks in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, building new synagogues, and expanding the tunnels towards the Mosque, with the aim of increasing access to it, and attempting to establish a new Jewish city near it, emulating the fabricated Israeli narratives.
The Jerusalem-based researcher does not rule out the possibility that the occupation’s excavations will reach the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque to a very large extent, due to the prevention of official institutions, including the Islamic Endowments Department, and the Jerusalemites, from accessing that area, as well as the Old City, to the extent that no one can see what is happening there.
According to Abu Diab, the occupation’s projects in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa include the establishment of Jewish synagogues and temples, where signs and marks have been placed to link them to the Torah or so-called Jewish civilization, to indicate their presence and to prove that Jerusalem is originally Jewish.
These projects are considered the largest since the occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem, and are distributed over 22 sites that are close and connected to each other, posing a great danger to Al-Aqsa in particular, and the Arabism and identity of the targeted area.
Among these areas, as Abu Diab explains, are the Umayyad Palaces, the Buraq Square, and the Sharaf neighborhood, which have the biggest share of these excavations, in addition to the area leading to the Chain Gate, the Al Khalil Gate from the inside, and the Prophet David’s Gate near Al-Aqsa.
He pointed out that the occupation police, since the beginning of the war on Gaza, have not allowed any Palestinian or institution to pass through the Prophet David’s Gate leading to the town of Silwan, and the Mughrabi Gate adjacent to the Old City, in order to conceal the work they are carrying out.
These projects and excavations pose immense dangers to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, including erasing the Arab, Islamic, and Christian history in Jerusalem, manufacturing false history and antiquities, brainwashing the world, as well as severing the city from its Islamic historical heritage, and strangling Al-Aqsa with these Judaization projects, and then pouncing on it, according to the warning of the Jerusalem-based researcher.
He says that the Al-Aqsa Mosque remains the landmark that demonstrates the identity and Arabism of Jerusalem, and the removal of its surroundings would make it easier for the occupation to remove it later, as it is at the eye of the storm and the target of the attack, and the extremists are exploiting all circumstances to Judaize it completely, in a way that cannot be reversed.
