GAZA (PIC)– PA information minister and acting Awkaf minister Yousef Rezka on Monday urged the world community to demand an immediate halt of the Israeli excavations at the Aqsa Mosque.
He said in a press release that the diggings target demolishing and hiding whatever is linked to “Islamic heritage and history in the region”.
Commenting on news reports affirming presence of Islamic relics at the Magharba gate where the Israeli excavations are centered he said that the world should intervene on the spot to halt such a violation of international agreements.
He hailed the Jordanian role along with that of the Awkaf in Jerusalem and UNESCO in demanding an end to the diggings and demanding a fact-finding commission to investigate the news reports.
The minister also denounced the Jewish settlers’ storming of a mosque in the Old City in Al-Khalil which was closed by the IOA before Muslim worshipers since eruption of the Aqsa intifada in September 2000.
He charged that the settlers who desecrated and ransacked the mosque before noon Monday have repeatedly assaulted the same mosque over the past four years.
Rezka called on the Arab and Islamic countries along with the OIC Arab League and Azhar to “seriously and swiftly” act to check those attacks and to put an end to the Zionist ferocious campaign against the Palestinian people and holy shrines.
