Israeli Occupation Forces Detain Scores of Al-Aqsa Employees after Shooting

July 15, 2017 Blog, News
grand mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Muhammad Hussein. (Photo: via MEMO)

Israeli forces detained dozens of Islamic Endowment employees at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, following a deadly shooting attack earlier in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem that left two Israeli police officers and three Palestinians dead, with witnesses claiming that Israeli forces had also vandalized facilities at the holy site.

Firas Dibs, head of public relations at the Islamic Endowment, or Waqf, which runs the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, told Ma’an that Israeli forces had detained 58 employees of the Waqf on Friday, and interrogated each of them about what they were doing at Al-Aqsa during the time of the attack and whether they had taken videos or pictures.

Meanwhile, Head of the cleaning department at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Khalid Abu Nijma said that Israeli forces had detained him and all of the other cleaning employees. They were transferred to interrogations at an Israeli police station and their phones were confiscated, Abu Nijma said.

Awqaf Rami Khatib, another Waqf employee, told Ma’an that Israeli special forces had also vandalized inside facilities at the holy compound by “smashing” doors and toilets.

A witness had also told Ma’an earlier on Friday that Israeli forces had raided the mosque with shoes on, in violation of the Muslim tradition which mandates that shoes be taken off in places of worship, and emptied out garbage containers in the compound under the claim that they were searching the containers.

Palestinian lawyer Mamoun al-Hashim also told Ma’an that an Israeli court had extended the detention of three Waqf employees, identified as Ayman al-Khaldi, Majid al-Tamimi, and Tariq Sandouqa, while the rest of the detainees were released after hours of interrogations with Israeli authorities.

Locals said that Israeli forces had also detained a member of a national working committee in Jerusalem from his home in Beit Safafa, allegedly owing to an interview he did on television about the attack. Israeli police had said that the interview was considered “incitement,” locals told Ma’an.

The detained member’s son Murad Jadallah told Ma’an that Israeli forces had transferred his father to interrogations at an Israeli police station in West Jerusalem.

Earlier on Friday, dozens of Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers raided and completely surrounded Al-Aqsa following the armed confrontations, which took place at the Lions’ Gate entrance to the Old City — where the two police officers, both Druze citizens of Israel were killed — and ended inside the compound where the three Palestinians, also citizens of Israel, were shot and killed.

Israeli forces had also detained the grand mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Muhammad Hussein early Friday afternoon while he was performing prayers among a crowd of Muslim worshipers who had been forced to pray on the street after Israeli forces closed off the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the wake of the attack.

Palestinians have long feared that Israel has been attempting to shake up the status quo at the holy site, in the shape of routine Jewish incursions on the site and right-wing Israeli calls to demolish the mosque and replace it with a third Jewish temple.

(Ma’an, PC, Social Media)

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