“The Zionist occupation authorities’ allowing flocks of settlers to storm the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday is playing with fire and drags the region into an escalation for which the occupation will bear full responsibility,” Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
Nationalist Israeli groups are planning to ascend to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, for the first time since Passover. The hilltop also contains the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, making it a deeply contested flashpoint between Arabs and Jews.
The Jewish groups say they plan to wave the Israeli flag and sing Israel’s national anthem at the holy site in celebration of Independence Day, which falls on Thursday.
“This Independence Day begins in blue and white on the Temple Mount!” declared BeYadeynu, a right-wing group that promotes Jewish worship at the site. READ MORE
