Aqsa Mosque director: Israeli violations will lead to uncontrollable explosion

The director of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound says Israel’s unrelenting violations at the holy site will lead to what he has termed uncontrollable explosion.

In a statement released on Sunday, Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani said the occupying regime has been desperately attempting to alter the status quo of the holy site by encouraging settler incursions. The cleric censured the regime for allowing Israeli settlers to defile the compound under protection from the regime troops.

Since Saturday, June 4, Israeli forces have had a siege in place on the compound and have been barring the Palestinians under the age of 40 from paying visits to the compound, al-Kiswani said. He urged the leaders of the Arab and Muslim countries to fulfill their responsibility toward the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The compound sits just above the Western Wall plaza. It houses both the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa is permitted, but according to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government in the wake of Israel’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the compound is prohibited.

Palestinian resistance groups have already threatened they will not allow Israeli “provocations” to go by unanswered.

In May 2021, frequent acts of violence against Palestinian worshipers at the Mosque led to an 11-day war between Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip and Israel, during which the regime martyred at least 260 Palestinians, including over 60 children. The regime was eventually forced to announce a ceasefire.