GAZA, (PIC)
The Hamas Movement condemned on Friday the arrest of Aqsa Mosque preacher Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, saying that it is a “blatant attack on the Aqsa Mosque.”
“We strongly condemn the Zionist occupation authorities’ arrest of the preacher of the Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, after he delivered the Friday sermon and mourned the martyred Ismail Haneyya at Aqsa.”
“The detention of Imam Ikrema and interrogating him is a direct aggression against our spiritual figures to sideline influential religious and national leaders defending Jerusalem’s identity and the Aqsa Mosque,” the Movement said in a statement.
Hamas held the Israeli occupation “fully responsible for the safety of Sheikh Ikrema.”
Hamas also called for the immediate release of Sabri and urged Arab and Muslim nations to condemn his arrest.
Earlier Friday, Sheikh Ikrema Sabri was detained on suspicion of inciting “terrorism” after he mourned the martyr Ismail Haneyya during his Friday sermon at the Aqsa Mosque.
Sabri, 85, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and current head of its Supreme Islamic Council, called Haneyya a martyr at the Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem, his lawyer Hamza Qatina said.
“Sabri is currently in Al-Maskobiya police compound under investigation on suspicion of inciting terrorism, because he mourned Ismail Haneyya during the Friday sermon and described him as a martyr,” the lawyer said.
Israeli police, without naming Sabri, said they had “opened an investigation into an imam suspected of making inciting statements and supporting terrorism during a sermon given on Friday.”
