Occupiers Scrap Plan to Block Muslims from Al-Aqsa Mosque in Ramadan Amid Pressures
The decision came after Palestinian groups warned the regime against imposing any restrictions on the site. Meanwhile, the US also urged the regime to facilitate access to the holy site for peaceful worshippers during the Muslim month.
"Every week a security assessment will be conducted and a decision will be made accordingly," the office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a Tuesday statement.
The regime’s extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had opposed the entry of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to al-Quds to pray during Ramadan, despite warnings from Israeli intelligence that the measure could spark violence.
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The US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that allowing access to al-Aqsa Mosque was not only the right thing to do but also important for the regime’s own security. "It is not in Israel's security interest to inflame tensions in the West Bank or in the broader region," he said.
The head of Hamas' Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, had called for a mass movement on al-Aqsa for the start of Ramadan.
"We call on our people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the occupied interior to travel to Al-Aqsa from the first day of the blessed month of Ramadan, in groups or alone, to pray there to break the siege on it," Haniyeh said in a televised statement.
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The Israeli regime has already imposed restrictions on Muslim worshipers’ access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, especially on Fridays when Muslims used to gather in tens of thousands to hold Friday prayers.
The restrictions began after the regime began pounding the Gaza Strip in October in brutal attacks that have killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The strikes began after Palestinian resistance groups launched a surprise operation dubbed Al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to mounting Israeli violence against Palestinians.
Source: Agencies
