“Extremist provocations only add fuel to regional tensions”

Officials from different countries and Islamic organizations have issued messages condemning the recent defiling of Islam’s third holiest mosque by Israeli far-right security minister, Itmar Ben-Gvir together with hundreds of extremist settlers, reported Taqrib News Agency (TNA).

Iran
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, called the move another flagrant instance of Israeli determination for expansion of tension in the region.

He said the mischievous measure stands for an undeniable fact that the Israeli officials intend to provoke the feelings of Muslims in Palestine and across the globe to fuel the fire of war they have launched in the besieged Gaza.

Kanaani emphasized in an address to the United States and western supporters of the Israeli regime to immediately end the Israeli genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip and the entire region.

Hamas

The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has strongly denounced the desecration of the Aqsa Mosque in a statement, condemning the provocative measure as “part of the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people, their land and holy sites”.

“The persistence of the far-right Zionist government and its war criminals in their massacres and genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, the killing and terrorism campaigns in the West Bank and the systematic violations in Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque … only adds fuel to the fire in the region and poses a direct threat to regional and international peace and security — a situation that entails serious action by the international community and the UN to curb this government and hold it accountable for its crimes,” Hamas underscored.

Hamas also called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to take serious and urgent steps to put an end to Israel’s Judaization activity against the Islamic and Christian holy sites across Palestine, especially its systematic violations at the Aqsa Mosque.

Jerusalem Islamic Endowments

Islamic institutions in occupied Jerusalem have warned against the escalating Israeli raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, adding that such moves aim at changing the status quo at the holy site and blurring the Islamic identity of the holy city.

The Jerusalem Islamic Endowments and Affairs Council, the Supreme Islamic Authority, the Palestinian Fatwa House, the Office of the Chief Justice in Jerusalem, the Department of Islamic Endowments and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs have issued a statement warning the Israeli regime against the repercussions of the recent raid by extremist Israelis into the holy site.

The statement called on Muslims around the world to mobilize and provide the necessary support to prevent the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is Muslims’ first Qiblah and one of the three holiest mosques in Islam.

Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called the Israelis' move a flagrant violation of the mosque and reiterated its call for respecting the historical status quo of al-Quds.

“The Kingdom condemned, in the strongest terms, the flagrant and continuous storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli occupation officials and settlers,” the ministry said in its statement.

The Saudi ministry reiterated the need to respect religious sanctuaries, warning the Tel Aviv regime against “the continuous violation of international law and of Jerusalem’s historical status quo and of the provocation of millions of Muslims across the world.”

It also called on the international community to assume its responsibility towards ending “these continuous Israeli violations.”