Al-Quds International warns of Israeli plan to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque

Al-Quds International Foundation warned of an Israeli escalation against the Rahma Gate prayer hall in Al-Aqsa Mosque, considering these steps aim to empty the hall and pave the way for its re-closure as part of efforts to impose a spatial division of the mosque. It noted intensified raids since the reopening of Al-Aqsa on April 9, the storming of the hall after Friday prayers on July 17, and disconnecting its speakers from the general sound system. It called for Arab and Islamic political and legal action.

Al-Quds International Foundation warned of an escalation by the Israeli occupation authorities against the Rahma Gate prayer hall in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, considering that these steps aim to empty the hall and pave the way for its re-closure, within renewed efforts to impose a spatial division of the mosque. In a statement, the foundation said that since the reopening of Al-Aqsa Mosque to worshippers on April 9, occupation forces have intensified their raids on the Rahma Gate prayer hall, expelled a number of worshippers and those performing i'tikaf, and disconnected the hall's speakers from the mosque's general sound system. It added that the escalation peaked with the storming of the hall after Friday prayers on July 17, expelling worshippers, and continuing to storm it with shoes, despite it being carpeted for years, a step it said aims to strip its status as an Islamic prayer hall and pave the way for its re-closure. The foundation affirmed that Al-Aqsa Mosque, with all its facilities totaling 144,000 square meters, is a purely Islamic mosque, and that Muslims' right to pray inside the Rahma Gate prayer hall is no different from their right to pray inside the Qibli Mosque or any other part of the mosque. It viewed that targeting the Rahma Gate prayer hall comes in the context of attempts to revive the spatial division project, noting that Israeli maps published in 2013 placed the Rahma Gate within the area targeted for annexation for settlers. The foundation pointed out that the recent measures coincided with targeting the Imam al-Ghazali Dome and the Dar al-Hadith al-Sharif in the eastern side of the mosque, along with enabling settlers to perform their rituals in the eastern courtyard, and described the erection of two tents in that courtyard during the so-called 'Tisha B'Av' incursion as a dangerous precedent that paves the way for imposing new facts inside Al-Aqsa. Al-Quds International called on the masses of Jerusalem and the occupied Palestinian interior, and all who can reach Al-Aqsa Mosque, to intensify i'tikaf and presence in the Rahma Gate prayer hall and the eastern courtyard, and also demanded Jordan, as the custodian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, and Arab and Islamic countries, to take political and legal action to stop what it described as ongoing plans of division and Judaization against Al-Aqsa Mosque.