Palestinians investigate crumbling of Al-Buraq Wall

An official of the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem said today that officials are investigating reports that a boulder had fallen from the Al-Buraq (Wailing) Wall, part of the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“We saw a video showing the fall of a boulder from the wall of Al-Buraq,” he said on condition of anonymity, adding that “engineers and specialists” are looking in to what happened.

“We believe that the fall of the stone is probably due to excavations in the area,” he continued.

Activists on social networking sites circulated a short video showing a boulder falling from Al-Buraq Wall.

سقوط حجر صخري كبير من حائط البراق بالمسجد الأقصى المبارك. pic.twitter.com/bDD4Un8e61

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) July 23, 2018

The Wall of Buraq is part of the Western Wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which Israel calls the “Wailing Wall” and leads Jews to prayer.

The Department insists that the Buraq Wall is part of the Islamic Waqf.

In recent years, the Department has repeatedly protested the Israeli Government’s refusal to allow its engineers or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to assess the area.

Read: Remembering Israel’s move to install metal detectors at Al-Aqsa