Aqsa Guards Warn of Israeli Attempts to Reclose Bab Al-Rahma

Occupied Jerusalem, MINA – The Aqsa Mosque guards have warned that the recent Israeli decisions to ban the entry of Awqaf officials and employees to the Mosque is aimed at reclosing the Bab al-Rahma prayer area and undermining their success in opening it.

In a statement, the Mosque guards said that 14 of them and other Awqaf officials had been arrested and then barred from entering the holy site by the Israeli occupation police for different periods extending from two weeks to six month, adding some of them received extensions to their banishment from the Aqsa Mosque, PIC reported.

“The occupation authorities are trying today to punish the Islamic Awqaf Council for its decision to open the Bab al-Rahma prayer area through banishing its chief Sheikh Abdul-Adheem Salhab and his deputy Sheikh Najeh Bukairat, although the Awqaf Council is the only body entitled to run the affairs of the Aqsa Mosque and it is not subject to the authority of the Israeli occupation and its decisions,” the statement said.

Their statement also warned the Jerusalemite citizens that “the Israeli police are trying to gradually empty the Aqsa Mosque of its guards until there is no one to guard the Aqsa Mosque and Bab al-Rahma.”

They noted that the Israeli police seek to reclose Bab al-Rahma through banishing the Aqsa guards, calling on the Jerusalemites to support and rally around them to confront the Israeli measures against them.(R/R04/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)