Israel's growing Al-Aqsa attacks 'alarming'

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:37:18 GMT

Head of the Manuscripts Department in Al-Aqsa Mosque warns of mounting Israeli violence against the holy site, amid growing protests in the Muslim world against the desecration of the mosque.

Israel has stepped up attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque to pave the way for dividing the Muslim world's third holy site, Najeh Bkeirat said on Wednesday.

Tel Aviv's assaults and measures against the mosque have reached more than 1250 cases since the occupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank, including Jerusalem Al-Quds, in 1967.

Bkeirat warned of an alarming increase in the hostile Israeli measures, recalling twin attacks which targeted the mosque within the same day during the past week.

The Israeli army's drills in the Al-Aqsa Mosque vicinity and barring Palestinians from entering the site is a prelude to a long-planned destruction of the mosque and its change into a Jewish temple.

Meanwhile, large crowds of Egyptian students took to streets in capital Cairo in protest to Israel's violation of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the regime's atrocities against the Palestinians.

Thousands of demonstrators, chanting anti-Israeli slogans, gathered outside the University of Cairo on Wednesday and torched the Israeli flag, IRNA reported.

A similar rally was also held by students of Alexandria University in a show of protests to the Israeli army's intrusion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The angry protesters condemned the Arab world's silence to the suffering of the Palestinian nation.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces razed six Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem Al-Quds, leaving their 26 residents, including 10 children, homeless.

Palestinians accuse Israel of efforts to remove the Palestinian-Islamic identity of East Jerusalem Al-Quds, which hosts the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The Arab dominated neighborhood was occupied during the 1967 war by the Israeli regime, which annexed it later, despite opposition from the international community.

The Israeli municipality authorities have been evicting Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem Al-Quds ever since, demolishing their houses over 'illegal construction'.