Hamas rally in Gaza in support of Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, organised a rally on Friday in support of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Felesteen newspaper has reported.

Speakers at the rally condemned Israeli violations in the holy city of Jerusalem. The Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa, in which the mosque stands, is in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.

The participants at the rally gathered after the Friday prayer in Jabalia Refugee Camp around 4 km north of Gaza City. Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanou addressed the Muslim and Arab nations, as well as the Palestinians, and called on them to mobilise efforts to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque, he pointed out, needs protection from Israeli plans to demolish it. “This is the common responsibility of all Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians,” he stressed. “Al-Aqsa and the city of Jerusalem are Arab and Islamic sites and no one has the right to give them away.”

Calling on the Palestinian people to increase their confrontations with the Israeli occupation authorities, Al-Qanou pointed out that Jerusalem cannot be divided. “Our nation will remain in Palestine forever,” he insisted.

In closing, the Hamas official called on the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority to end its security cooperation with the Israeli occupation and stop blocking Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem against Israel’s violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy city.