The occupation forces arrested Imam Muhammad al-Abbasi of Al-Aqsa Mosque and handed him a decision to ban him from the blessed mosque.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted local sources as saying that "the occupation forces arrested Sheikh Al-Abbasi inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, without knowing the reasons for the arrest or the nature of the measures taken against him."
She noted that the arrest "comes amid escalating occupation measures against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which include restricting imams, preachers and those stationed there, imposing restrictions on the entry of worshippers, in addition to intensifying incursions carried out by settlers under heavy protection from the occupation police."
Keeping away from the sanctuary
For its part, Agence France-Presse quoted Sheikh Mohammed Ali Al-Abbasi on Tuesday as saying that he had received a decision from the Israeli police ordering his removal from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as preparations were underway for the start of Ramadan. He added: “I have been removed from the Al-Aqsa Mosque for a week, which is renewable.”
Al-Abbasi told AFP: "I returned to the mosque just a month ago after spending a whole year in the hospital following a serious traffic accident," noting that he does not understand such decisions, as "the matter is very sensitive to me; Al-Aqsa is our life, my whole life."
Hamas condemned
On Tuesday, Hamas condemned in a statement the arrest of al-Abbasi and the “handing over of a decision to ban him from the mosque,” and said that “this measure represents a blatant interference in the affairs of Al-Aqsa and an unacceptable attack on its imams.”
The movement added that "the escalation of violations by the fascist occupation government against the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, imposing restrictions on the entry of worshippers, preventing the implementation of logistical plans for the month of Ramadan, in addition to intensifying the incursions of settler groups, are dangerous interventions that fall within its relentless attempts to control and Judaize it, restrict freedom of worship in it, and impose temporal and spatial division."
It affirmed "the invalidity of all measures and decisions of the occupying authority on our Palestinian land, especially in Jerusalem and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque," and called on "the masses of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the occupied interior to stay steadfast at Al-Aqsa, to travel to it, to rebuild it, and to stand as a bulwark against plans to tamper with its identity."
The occupied city of Jerusalem, particularly the Old City and the area surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is witnessing escalating tensions due to the strict security measures imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities, including arrests and deportations of religious figures and Jerusalemite activists.
Since the beginning of the two-year war of extermination on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation authorities have imposed severe restrictions on the access of Palestinians from the West Bank to the occupied city of Jerusalem.
Military checkpoints are erected between the West Bank and the occupied East Jerusalem, and only those holding permits issued by the Israeli occupation army are allowed to pass through them.
