Alwaght-The Israeli regime has again bowed down to pressure and removed the remaining barriers at the entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque in the city of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) in a bid to ease tensions triggered by the recent Israeli restrictions.
On Wednesday night, the Israeli regime forces removed the metal detectors and railings set up at the main entrances to al-Aqsa following mass protests across the occupied Palestinian territories and around the world.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniya on Thursday said Palestinians forced the Israeli occupation to throw in the towel and succumb to relentless calls pushing for lifting noose around worshipers’ neck.
Haniya lauded the steadfastness maintained by Palestinian worshipers and sit-inners at al-Aqsa Mosque, saying they proved that they are the real defenders of Islamic and Christian holy sites.
“Occupied al-Quds is and will forever remain exclusively Arab and Islamic. It is indivisible. Let everybody bear in mind that every inch of Palestine is ours. . . . Never ever shall we allow the Israelis to desecrate our al-Aqsa Mosque,” stated Haneyya.
Elsewhere, some Muslim elders urged Palestinian worshipers to return to prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque in East al-Quds after Israel backed down in the face of angry protests and removed all the restrictions at the holy site.
“The technical report showed that all obstacles the occupation (Israel) put outside al-Aqsa Mosque were removed,” said Abdel-Azeem Salhab, the head of the Waqf, the Jordanian-funded trust that oversees al-Quds’ Muslim holy sites, on Thursday.
“We praise this stand in the past two weeks outside al-Aqsa and we want this stand to continue outside al-Aqsa and now inside al-Aqsa," he said.
Palestinians had been holding daily protests outside the compound since Israeli authorities imposed the restrictions on their entry into the compound following a deadly shooting incident there on July 14.
Over the past decades, the Israeli regime has tried to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.
The al-Aqsa mosque, which lies in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds, is a flashpoint and is Islam’s third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina.
