Jordan renewed on Sunday its condemnation of the Israeli incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, considering that the mosque “with its entire area is a place of worship purely for Muslims.”
This came in the fourth condemnation statement issued by the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since the fifth of April, commenting on the settlers and Israeli police storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque and attacking worshipers there and forcibly expelling them from it.
“Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its entire area of 144 dunums, is a pure place of worship for Muslims,” Sinan al-Majali, spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, said in the statement.
Al-Majali added, “The Department of Endowments of Jerusalem and the Affairs of the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, affiliated to the Jordanian Ministry of Endowments, Islamic Affairs and Holy Sites, is the only authority authorized, with exclusive jurisdiction, to manage the affairs of the mosque and regulate entry to it and is able to guarantee its security.”
Al-Majali linked achieving this “if Israel stops its aggressions, lifts the restrictions it imposes on it and its staff, and respects the historical and legal status quo in sanctities and the worshipers’ right to worship.”
And he held the Israeli government “responsible for the escalation in Jerusalem and all the occupied Palestinian territories, and for the deterioration that will worsen if it does not stop its incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the harassment of worshipers.”
Majali reaffirmed that “Israel, as the occupying power, must comply with its obligations in accordance with international law, especially international humanitarian law, regarding the occupied city of Jerusalem and its sanctities.”
The city of Jerusalem has been witnessing tension since the beginning of last week, in the wake of the Israeli police storming Al-Aqsa Mosque at night, and assaulting worshipers inside it with beatings, stun grenades and tear gas, and preventing them from performing i’tikaf in it.
The repeated incursions into Al-Aqsa led to tension and clashes throughout the Palestinian territories and the Arab regions of Israel, in addition to the firing of rockets from Lebanon, Gaza and Syria.