Dozens of Jewish settlers set up a menorah at the Buraq plaza west of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Saturday evening.
Local sources said that Jewish settlers set up the menorah as a prelude to celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Sunday.
For its part the Hamas Movement had called on Palestinians all over occupied territories to mobilize against the settlers’ plans to launch massive raids into the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
“The Palestinian people will always be the protective shield for the Al-Aqsa Mosque” Hamas said in a press statement on Saturday calling on Palestinians to intensify their presence at the holy site in order to foil the Israeli plans to impose spatial and temporal division on Al-Aqsa.
The Movement stressed that the massive settlers’ raids planned by the Jewish groups in celebration of Hanukkah constitute dangerous escalation and provocation to the feelings of Palestinians and Muslims all over the world.
It held Israel responsible for the repercussions of the Jewish settlers’ provocative incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque calling on the Arab and Muslim countries in addition to the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to act urgently and protect Al-Aqsa against the Israeli Judaization plans.
