The Israeli occupation police on Thursday kidnaped one of the Aqsa Mosque guards and extended the banishment of Sheikh Najeh Bakirat from the Aqsa Mosque and the Old City.
According to local sources police officers arrested Aqsa guard Bader al-Rajbi from Bab as-Silsila area in the Old City of Jerusalem and took him to a detention center in the holy city.
Meanwhile the Israeli police issued a renewed order extending the banishment of Sheikh Bakirat deputy director of the Islamic Awqaf in Jerusalem and head of al-Aqsa Academy for Science and Heritage.
According to the order Sheikh Bakirat is prohibited from entering the Aqsa Mosque and the Old City for another six months.
Sheikh Bakirat is exposed to systematic persecution by the Israeli police. He had been detained and banished from the Aqsa Mosque and the Old City several times before.
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) in the holy city has escalated its arbitrary measures against Aqsa and Awqaf officials and employees as part of its efforts to obstruct their role in defending the Mosque and administrating its affairs.
Such measures are also seen as part of Israeli preparations to secure the Aqsa Mosque for mass desecration by extremist Jewish settlers on Ramadan 28 (May 10).
In a separate incident the Israeli magistrate court in Jerusalem on Thursday ordered the conditional release of a Palestinian young man from Qalansuwa city called Mohamed al-Aqaba.
According to the court order Aqaba is denied entry to Jerusalem for one month.
Aqaba and five others from the 1948 occupied lands (Israel) were arrested by the police last Monday because of their participation in an activity organized in the holy city in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah families who are facing an Israeli plan to displace them from their homes.
