GAZA (PIC)– Ismail Redwan the Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday called on the world community to pressure Israel into halting excavations at the Aqsa Mosque.
Redwan said that Israel should stop the diggings altogether because its announcement on suspending them was not enough noting that Palestinian defense of the Aqsa coupled with Arab and Islamic sympathy made Israel re-think the issue of demolishing part of the holy site.
The spokesman in a telephone statement to the PIC urged all Palestinian factions to untie efforts in defense of the Aqsa and urged Muslim scholars to declare practical steps in support of the Palestinian people’s steadfastness.
He said that the world should pressure the IOA to stop those excavations to preserve freedom of religions and holy shrines.
Commenting on Israeli premier Ehud Olmert’s expectations that the Palestinian national unity government would collapse Redwan said that it was not strange for Olmert to utter such statements since he always puts obstacles before any Palestinian government whether through siege or closure of crossings.
For its part the PLC’s Quds committee held the “Zionist occupation” responsible for such “serious” diggings at the Aqsa Mosque.
It called on the Palestinian masses in a statement Tuesday to continue resisting the “Zionist schemes that target judaizing Al-Quds and controlling the Aqsa”.
The committee urged Arab and Islamic parliaments to establish committees on Jerusalem affairs and to pass recommendations that would support the Palestinians in resisting “Zionist occupation’s criminal schemes”.
It also appealed to friendly countries and peace-loving peoples to pressure Tel Aviv into halting aggressive acts against Jerusalem and the Palestinian people.
Finally the Aqsa foundation that caters for Islamic shrines in Palestine issued a statement denouncing what it called the “shameful Arab and Islamic silence” towards what was going on in the Aqsa Mosque at the hands of Israeli occupation.
It clarified that Jews believe that the door of their alleged temple was under the Magharba gate and added that the demolitions at that gate and the subsequent planned construction of a “modern bridge” would only serve Jews and facilitate their entry into the holy site since keys of that gate were seized by Israel ever since its occupation of Jerusalem in 1967.
