The Israeli occupation authorities continue to close the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the eighth day in a row, and prevent Muslims from praying and performing prayer in the mosque in a dangerous precedent of the kind presented by the government of “Israel” provocative actions to the feelings of Muslims in occupied Palestine and the world.
In the facts, as documented by Palestinian human rights and information organizations: On Sunday morning, July 16, 2017, Israeli police authorities installed 9 gates for electronic searches on three of the mosque’s gates, 5 of which were in Bab al-Asbat Square, (2) in the door of the Council, and (2) in the door of the chain, while keeping the other doors closed (Hattah, King Faisal, Guanymah, iron, disinfectant, and Katanin), and since that date the Palestinian worshipers refuse to enter the mosque of the Aqsa through these gates, To establish their prayers in the squares at the entrances to the Temple Mount.
Despite the repeated demands to remove these gates, the Cabinet of Ministers of Israel approved at its meeting on Thursday, 20/7/2017, the construction of electronic gates and the mobilization of more of its military and police forces in the city of Jerusalem and its surroundings, Aqsa Mosque, and a complete siege closed all roads and entrances to and from the city.
However, the provocative escalation of the feelings of the people of the city and after Friday prayers yesterday, thousands of Palestinian citizens organized peaceful protest rallies in various governorates of the occupied West Bank, especially Jerusalem, to express their rejection of the actions of the Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israeli occupation forces fired live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas canisters at Palestinian civilians, killing the child Mohammed Mahmoud Sharaf, 17 years, in Ras al-Amud neighborhood in Silwan. According to information published by human rights organizations The other citizen, Mohammed Hassan Abu Ghannam, 21 years, was wounded by a live bullet in the chest during clashes that erupted in Jabal al-Tur in the east of the city.
In the town of Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, Mohammed Khalaf Lafi, 17years, was wounded by a live bullet in the chest during clashes that broke out in the town. He was taken to the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah. , Announced later.
On Thursday afternoon, 20/7/2017, Israeli occupation forces killed Mohammed Hussein Tannouh, 26 years, while he was near al-Khansa School in the town of Taqoa, east of Bethlehem. The Israeli Occupation Forces claimed that he attempted to carry out a stabbing operation. That eyewitnesses refuted the Israeli story, and said that Israeli soldiers fired at him, and then run over him by a military jeep.
The International Network for Human Rights Monitoring condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli military and police authorities’ insistence on escalating the measures taken against Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem, which included closing it, preventing the raising of the adhaan and praying in its vicinity provoking in that behavior a large segment of Muslims.
The network also deplores the use of excessive force by the Israeli occupation forces against the civilian population involved in performing prayers at the entrances to the Temple Mount and in the demonstrations of the rejection of the occupation measures being carried out in the various Palestinian governorates which resulted in the killing of four Palestinian civilians, including two children, Dozens of others were wounded, described the injuries of some of them very dangerous.
The International Network for Human Rights Monitoring considers the Israeli government responsible for the deterioration of the situation because of its arbitrary measures against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which violate the freedom of worship, as well as use of its various police security forces by excessive force against the civilian population in the Palestinian territory.
The Network calls upon the General Assembly of the United Nations and the League of Arab States to act urgently and to shoulder their legal and moral responsibilities and to intervene urgently to compel the occupying forces to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the protection of civilians in time of war. The forms of the policy of collective punishment prohibited under the rules of international human rights law and the taking of deterrent measures against Israel for its grave violations and gross violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
