Israeli police interfere in repairs at Aqsa Mosque, detain three of its guards

[ 10/11/2010 - 12:50 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli police detained three Palestinian guards of the Aqsa Mosque after they prevented a group of settlers from making what they called repairs in the Islamic Khatuniya School at the Aqsa Mosque. The police also summoned for interrogation engineers of the Palestinian ministry of religious affairs who are members of the Mosque's renovation committee. The settlers resumed their work after Israeli policemen escorted them back to the School. The police deliberately intervene in renovation works at the Aqsa Mosque and still prevent the Palestinian ministry of religious affairs and its entitled Islamic institutions from carrying out repairs at the Aqsa Mosque's premises including this School. Al-Khatuniya School is located behind Al-Aqsa Mosque's mihrab and there are a door and stairs leading to it behind this mihrab. It is part and extension of the old Aqsa Mosque and includes other sections and an Islamic library. Sheikh Abdelazim Salhab, the head of the Islamic endowment council, condemned this Israeli act as an attack on the Aqsa Mosque and a violation of the jurisdiction of the ministry of religious affairs and its institutions, the only parties authorized to restore the Islamic holy sites in the occupied Palestinian territories.