The Islamic Awqaf Affairs and Holy Site Council in Occupied Jerusalem has warned of “suspicious activities” being carried out by the Israeli antiquities authority and the Elad settler group near the Aqsa Mosque’s southern and western walls and foundations.
“We have been monitoring for a while a group of workers with bulldozers and large digging equipment working suspiciously in al-Buraq Wall plaza and the Umayyad Palaces area which are adjacent to the lower foundations of the Aqsa Mosque” the Islamic Awqaf said in a statement on Thursday.
The Islamic Awqaf explained it spotted heavy machinery working on emptying mounds of dirt and making holes in walls near the Mosque’s southern wall in an attempt to hide the excavations taking place in the area.
“Observers have monitored for months continuous crushing of important archeological stones in order to turn them into small stones before workmen affiliated with settler groups work on removing them as piles of debris to garbage dumps” the Islamic Awqaf added.
The Islamic Awqaf affirmed that the Buraq Wall its plaza and the Umayyad Palaces area are purely Islamic mortmain property and part of the Aqsa Mosque with its prayer buildings courtyards premises paths and its entire 144 dunums of land.
It stressed the need to pressure the Israeli occupation government to abide by relevant international resolutions especially the resolution adopted by UNESCO on October 18 2016 that emphasized the Islamic identity of the Aqsa Mosque.
